Braverman challenge on human rights ‘will’

THE UK lacks the “political will” to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Suella Braverman told a conference in Brussels as Belgian police moved to shut the event down.

In a speech to the National Conservatism conference, the former Home Secretary attacked the ECHR as incompatible with parliamentary democracy and the court charged with enforcing it as “profoundly undemocratic and politicised”.

The Conservative MP, a longtime opponent of the ECHR, said the UK could leave the convention “at the stroke of a pen” with the Prime Minister sending a letter giving six months’ notice to the Council of Europe.

She said: “I wish the UK would do so now. Not only is it the right and necessary thing to do, it is also the politically expedient thing to do.”

But she said she does not expect this to happen, and poured scorn on Rishi Sunak’s recent suggestions that he would be willing to leave the ECHR if it prevented him from implementing his policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Ms Braverman said: “Regrettably, the UK Government doesn’t have the political will to take on the ECHR and hasn’t laid the groundwork for doing so.

“It’s therefore no surprise that recent noises in this direction from the Prime Minister are being dismissed by the public as inauthentic”

Ms Braverman made her speech after police officers had arrived at the conference venue to enforce an order from the mayor of Saint-Josse, a district of Brussels, requiring the event to close “to guarantee public safety”.

The conference had already struggled to find a venue, with two event spaces cancelling the National Conservatives’ booking in the face of public pressure – leading organisers to accuse Brussels mayor Philippe Close of seeking to “cancel” the event.