EXCLUSIVE Battle lines drawn over immigration: Keir plans legal crackdown on migrants exploiting 'right to family life' as Kemi pledges to revive Rwanda-style scheme

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

Labour is set to bring in new laws curtailing use of the European human rights convention by foreign criminals.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is drawing up legislation to make it easier to deport overseas offenders as well as failed asylum seekers, the Daily Mail can reveal.
A new bill will contain measures designed to restrict the use of the 'right to private and family life' under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
It comes as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch will unveil tough plans to revive a Rwanda-style deportation scheme - and vow to withdraw Britain from any international treaties that stand in the way.
In a major speech, the Tory leader will declare that a future Conservative government would reintroduce measures to bar illegal migrants from claiming asylum in this country and deport them to a third country.
The competition between Tories and Labour for tough-sounding immigration policies comes as both parties are coming under pressure at the polls from Nigel Farage 's Reform.
Labour's proposals are designed to address escalating numbers of foreign nationals - including killers and rapists - bringing successful legal challenges against deportation from Britain.
A Home Office source said: 'This is about Parliament taking back control of who's allowed to stay here and who isn't, rather than judges.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, pictured giving evidence to the Commons' home affairs select committee on Tuesday, is set to propose restrictions on use of human rights laws in immigration cases
Jamaican national Ernesto Elliott, a foreign national offender who brought a successful claim under Article 8 - the right to family life - and committed a murder six months later
'We want to make sure those who break our laws don't get to stay here.'
The measures are expected to be promised in the next King's Speech.
Ms Cooper believes the new crackdown will have to work in tandem with her plan to set up overseas 'return hubs' for foreign nationals who have no right to be in the UK, sources said.
The Foreign Office is in talks with a number of countries in the Balkans about hosting the hubs, which would house criminals and asylum seekers who have exhausted their appeal rights.
Kosovo and Moldova are the current front-runners to host the centres, the Mail understands.
Labour's new legislation to restrict Article 8 claims will 'strengthen the public interest test', insiders said.
This means courts would have to place more weight on a foreign national's criminal record and the risk they pose to the public, and less weight on the individual's family life claim.
The Home Office's role in maintaining proper border controls would also be given extra weight.
Ms Cooper's new law is also likely to set out how Article 8 should be applied in different types of claims - for example, foreign criminals could face broader exclusions than other individuals.
In her speech on Friday Mrs Badenoch will announce a new commission to examine the impact of the ECHR and other related treaties like the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
A Tory source said the last government's Rwanda scheme had been stymied by 'activist judges' interpreting law based on treaties like the ECHR.
Mrs Badenoch was prepared to withdraw from both treaties if they frustrated efforts to deal with the Channel migrant crisis, the source added.
The commission, led by Tory barrister Lord Wolfson, will also look at whether changes are needed to other sweeping pieces of legislation including the Equality Act and the Climate Change Act.
One insider said: 'We need to look again at all these well-meaning pieces of legislation which have been used by activist judges to tie government in knots for years.
'We need to and get back to a situation where elected politicians are taking decisions in the interests of the public.'
Mrs Badenoch will contrast her new approach with that of Labour, whose controversial attorney general Lord Hermer has vowed to 'rebuild our reputation as a leader in the field of international law'.
Lord Hermer, a close friend of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, has said Labour will never quit the ECHR.
Last week he was forced to apologise for 'clumsy' remarks in which he compared those calling for the UK to leave the treaty to the Nazis.
On Tuesday Ms Cooper told MPs that although Article 8 claims are supposed to be granted only in 'exceptional' circumstances, judges are now allowing 30 per cent of such cases.
The Home Secretary's ability to impose Article 8 restrictions would be set out in principle in the Bill, it is thought, with specific exclusions detailed in secondary legislation.
This would allow the Home Office to continually add to the exclusions if immigration lawyers attempted new legal tactics to get around the rules, or if judges failed to take full account of Parliament's wishes.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said of Labour's proposals: 'This is just pathetic tinkering.
'Immigration lawyers and judges will still be able to exploit Article 8 claims.
'The only way to fix this is to repeal the Human Rights Act in its entirety for all immigration matters.
'The Conservatives proposed this and put it to a vote in Parliament just a few weeks ago but Labour voted it down.'
The Mail revealed in 2023 how a Jamaican prolific offender used the 'right to family life' to dodge deportation before going on to commit murder.
Ernesto Elliott, then 45, had 17 crimes on his rap sheet including knife crime and possession of an imitation firearm.
He was due to be aboard a Home Office removals flight in December 2020 but his lawyers lodged a last-minute challenge against deportation citing Article 8.
But in June 2021 - six months after he was supposed to have been removed from Britain - Elliott murdered 35-year-old Nathaniel Eyewu-Ago in a horrific knife fight.
The bloody, eight-minute knife fight which took place in broad daylight in Greenwich, south-east London, was caught on video by traumatised neighbours.
Mr Eyewu-Ago collapsed after being stabbed through the heart and died in hospital six days later.
As a result, Elliott, from Walthamstow, east London, was jailed for at least 26 years.
It was a crime that would never have taken place if Elliott had been sent back to his birth country.
The victim's father Godfrey Ago, 79, from south-east London, told the Mail at the time: 'He should not have been in the UK. If he had not been here, he wouldn't have murdered my son.
'He is a criminal, and should not be free to walk amongst men.'