Deport all foreign criminals, says Labour MP in attack on ECHR
Ministers should set aside the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and deport foreign criminals, a Labour MP has said.
Jonathan Brash, the MP for Hartlepool, said the Government should exercise its 'perfectly legitimate' right to deport criminals by saying ECHR Article 8 rights to a family life do not apply in such cases.
He is thought to be the first Labour MP to publicly declare that the Government should ignore the ECHR in order to return convicted foreign criminals back to their home countries.
It follows a series of cases exposed by The Telegraph where illegal migrants or convicted foreign criminals have used human rights laws to remain in the UK or halt their deportations. Many have used Article 8 of the ECHR, which protects the right to respect for private and family life.
They include an Albanian criminal who avoided deportation after claiming his son had an aversion to foreign chicken nuggets and a Pakistani paedophile, who was jailed for child sex offences but escaped removal from the UK as it would be 'unduly harsh' on his children.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, is considering whether to restrict foreign criminals and illegal migrants from exploiting the ECHR to block their deportations.
She is reviewing how Article 8 of the ECHR, which guarantees the right to family life, is being applied by immigration courts to ensure that it is being interpreted in a 'sensible' and 'proportionate' way.
Speaking on GB News, Jonathan Brash said: 'I don't think it's a particularly controversial view to say that if our government wants to deport a foreign criminal, they should be able to.
'The ECHR allows for that in issues of public safety and national security. It's perfectly legitimate for a government to say Article 8 is not applying here, we are deporting a foreign criminal.
'And if that's a controversial virtual view for anyone, I don't know what they're thinking about, because quite frankly, if someone is a danger to the public in this country, they should be deported. It's as simple as that.
He added: 'If you are a criminal and you are proposing harm to the British people, and you're not from this country and you're here illegally, you should be deported.
'It can't really be much simpler than that, and we have to get to a position where we deliver that. I think reviewing how it's applied, as has happened in other countries, very successfully is exactly the right thing to do.
Other Labour MPs - particularly from Red Wall constituencies where Nigel Farage's Reform party is a major threat - support restrictions on judges increasingly expansionist interpretations of the ECHR to overturn deportation orders.
Labour MPs attended a briefing on Monday evening with a leading barrister on the issue in Parliament which has been organised by Dan Carden, the MP for Liverpool Walton.
Writing for Politics.co.uk, Jonathan Hinder, the MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, said: 'Yvette Cooper is right to at least be considering how some of its articles are being applied in the courts.
'When the voters say 'we want the Government to reduce illegal migration', it is entirely reasonable for them to think that the elected governments of these islands can deliver that.'
Connor Naismith, the MP for Crewe and Nantwich, said that recent rulings based on human rights rules were eroding voters' trust in politicians.
He warned: 'People tell me that they don't feel like their politicians can really change things. The truth is they're not entirely wrong.
'Artificial structures and outsourced decisions have limited our democracy and the Prime Minister is right to take this on.'
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