James Cleverly says leaving ECHR is 'not silver bullet' - and leaves door open for leadership bid
The former foreign and home secretary appeared to diverge from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch's stance on the ECHR in a speech about the challenges facing the Conservative Party and UK politics in general.
Politics latest:
Last month, into whether the UK should withdraw from the treaty that is a central part of UK human rights law and has been used to halt attempts to deport illegal immigrants.
She said she is "increasingly of the view" that leaving the ECHR would be necessary.
But said when he was home secretary, from November 2023 to July 2024, he noticed the UK had "one of the lowest deportation rates" of foreign criminals "amongst our European neighbours" - who are also ECHR signatories.
He said he was looking into why that was but the general election happened "before I got any credible answer".
"But the bottom line is other signatories to the ECHR are kicking out foreign criminals much more than we are," he told the Institute for Public Policy.
"And other countries who are not signatories to the ECHR are also struggling so I'm not convinced the ECHR is, on its own, a silver bullet.
"Particularly if we don't do something about what I worry is a political activism in the legal system, which is trying to re-write British border immigration law policy through case law rather than through parliament."
His comments are also in opposition to Robert Jenrick, who, like Sir James, unsuccessfully ran to be Tory leader, and has said the Tories must back leaving the ECHR to survive.
Read more:Reform UK is on the march - there's just one problemMinister hints at tax rises in next budget
I don't want to jump into leadership decision
Sir James left the door open to trying again to become Conservative leader, saying he did not want to "jump" into any future political moves.
Asked if he would try to become London mayor or Tory leader, he said: "I like being in government, I don't like being in opposition, which is why I'm clear that I will play my part in helping to get Conservatives back into government, at every level of government.
"Exactly what I do next? I've forced a discipline on myself which is not to jump at something."
He added that the Tories tried having a new leader "a number of times in the last government - it did not end well".
The Braintree MP said after he lost the last leadership race he promised himself he "would spend some time thinking about exactly what I would do next".
Voters will respond if Reform councils get stuff wrong
In the speech, he also attacked Labour, Reform and all other parties, saying they tell people what they want to hear but do not have any "deliverable" policies.
On the Conservatives' strategy to beat Reform, which has been polling ahead of all other parties, he told Sky News: "So at the moment, Reform are very, very popular, but now they're running stuff.
"And as I've said, we've now got some examples in local government.
"And local government is a bit of government people feel most important.
"This is the bit of government that runs their adult social care, their roads, their schools, their waste collection and when governments get stuff like that wrong, people notice and people respond."
He said if Reform councillors do not "step up and perform" voters will be looking for alternatives - "and that's what we need to do".
"We need to make sure that we once again, are credible alternatives with a genuine plan and some energy and some direction," he added.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CNBC
23 minutes ago
- CNBC
CNBC Daily Open: Markets are already looking past U.S.-EU trade deal and need another catalyst
Stock markets in the U.S. and Europe didn't seem that delighted with the U.S.-European Union trade deal reached over the weekend. The S&P 500 ticked up, but by the barest margin, while the Stoxx 600 Europe fell. Both indexes were trading higher during their respective sessions but had given up those gains as the day ended. For those on the continent, perhaps it was a dawning realization that the agreement wasn't too much in their favor. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and France's minister for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, expressed a desire for more open trade. With U.S. President Donald Trump announcing Monday that he would probably impose a blanket tariff of between 15% and 20% on countries without trade agreements, it's starting to seem like most duties will settle around that level eventually, easing some uncertainty. What's more, economists appear to be revising downward their expectations of the impact tariffs will have on the U.S. economy — so any deals in the future might not trigger rallies, or strong ones at least, on Wall Street. Tariff considerations, then, are on the backburner for now. Investors can turn their attention to Magnificent Seven earnings: Meta Platforms and Microsoft will be releasing results on Wednesday. If all goes well, they might give markets the cheer that was missing on Monday. Global baseline tariff of between 15% and20%. For countries that have not negotiated separate trade agreements with the U.S., Trump said he would likely impose that blanket tariff rate on their exports. But Wall Street doesn't seem as frightened of tariffs anymore. Less than two weeks for Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine. That's the new deadline Trump issued to Moscow — if Russia fails to meet it, the U.S. president will implement massive 'secondary tariffs" on the country's trade partners, Trump said. Europe isn't that pleased with its U.S. trade deal. The agreement, which imposes a 15% tariff on most European Union goods exported to the U.S., has been criticized by European leaders and analysts as "asymmetric" and "unbalanced." Markets have a muted response to EU deal. On Monday, the S&P 500 closed near the flatline, down from a 0.2% increase during its session high. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index lost 0.22%, erasing earlier gains. [PRO] Watch this index for signs of a new bull phase. This index, which is calculated differently from the price-weighted S&P 500, gives a better gauge of the health of the entire economy and stock market. Where is Nvidia? Chinese rivals take the limelight at major AI event in Shanghai Less than two weeks after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's high-profile visit to Beijing, the U.S. chipmaker was conspicuous by its absence at the World AI Conference, China's biggest artificial intelligence event, that opened Saturday in Shanghai. In contrast, Nvidia's China rival, Huawei, had a large display — focused on its Ascend AI chips — near the venue entrance. Huang has called Huawei "one of the most formidable technology companies in the world," while warning that it could replace Nvidia in China if U.S. sticks with its export curbs on Beijing. —


NBC News
23 minutes ago
- NBC News
E.U.'s $250 billion-per-year spending on U.S. energy is unrealistic
BRUSSELS — The European Union's pledge to buy $250 billion of U.S. energy supplies per year is unrealistic because it would require the redirection of most U.S. energy exports towards Europe and the EU has little control over the energy its companies import. The U.S. and EU struck a framework trade deal on Sunday, which will impose 15% U.S. tariffs on most EU goods. The deal included a pledge for the EU to spend $250 billion annually on U.S. energy — imports of oil, liquefied natural gas and nuclear technology — for the next three years. Total U.S. energy exports to all buyers worldwide in 2024 amounted to $318 billion, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed. Of that, the EU imported a combined $76 billion of U.S. petroleum, LNG and solid fuels such as coal in 2024, according to Reuters' calculations based on Eurostat data. More than tripling those imports was unrealistic, analysts said. Arturo Regalado, senior LNG analyst at Kpler, said the scope of the energy trade envisioned in the deal 'exceeds market realities.' 'U.S. oil flows would need to fully redirect towards the EU to reach the target, or the value of LNG imports from the US would need to increase sixfold,' Regalado said. There is strong competition for U.S. energy exports as other countries need the supplies — and have themselves pledged to buy more in trade deals. Japan agreed to a 'major expansion of U.S. energy exports' in its U.S. trade deal last week, the White House said in a statement. South Korea has also indicated interest in investing and purchasing fuel from an Alaskan LNG project as it seeks a trade deal. Competition for U.S. energy could drive up benchmark U.S. oil and gas prices and encourage U.S. producers to favor exports over domestic supply. That could make fuel and power costs more expensive, which would be a political and economic headache for U.S. and EU leaders. Neither side has detailed what was included in the energy deal — or whether it covered items such as energy services or parts for power grids and plants. The EU estimates its member countries' plans to expand nuclear energy would require hundreds of billions of euros in investments by 2050. Its nuclear reactor-related imports, however, totalled just 53.3 billion euros in 2024, trade data shows. The energy pledge reflected the EU's analysis of how much U.S. energy supply it could accommodate, a senior EU official said, but that would depend on investments in U.S. oil and LNG infrastructure, European import infrastructure, and shipping capacity. 'These figures, again, are not taken out of thin air. So yes, they require investments,' said the senior official, who declined to be named. 'Yes, it will vary according to the energy sources. But these are figures which are reachable.' There was no public commitment to the delivery, the official added, because the EU would not buy the energy — its companies would. Private companies import most of Europe's oil, while a mix of private and state-run companies import gas. The European Commission can aggregate demand for LNG to negotiate better terms, but cannot force companies to buy fuel. That is a commercial decision. 'It's just unrealistic,' ICIS analysts Andreas Schröder and Ajay Parmar said in written comments to Reuters. 'Either Europe pays a super high non-market reflective price for U.S. LNG or it takes way too much LNG volumes, more than it can cope with.' U.S. production The United States is already the EU's top supplier of LNG and oil, shipping 44% of EU LNG needs and 15.4% of its oil in 2024, according to EU data. Raising imports to the target would require a U.S. LNG expansion way beyond what is planned through 2030, said Jacob Mandel, research lead at Aurora Energy Research. 'You can add on capacity,' Mandel said. 'But if you're talking about the scale that would be necessary to meet these targets, the $250 billion, then it's not really feasible.' Europe could buy $50 billion more of U.S. LNG annually as supply increases, he said. Replacing Russia The EU has said it could import more U.S. energy as its plan advances to end Russian oil and gas imports by 2028. The EU imported around 94 million barrels of Russian oil last year — 3% of the bloc's crude purchases — and 52 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian LNG and gas, according to EU data. For comparison, the EU imported 45 bcm of U.S. LNG last year. Higher EU fuel purchases would, however, run counter to forecasts for EU demand to decline as it shifts to clean energy, analysts said. 'There is no major need for the EU to import more oil from the U.S., in fact, its oil demand peaked a number of years ago,' Schröder and Parmar said.

Associated Press
23 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Justice Department files misconduct complaint against federal judge handling deportation case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday filed a misconduct complaint against the federal judge who has clashed with President Donald Trump 's administration over deportations to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Escalating the administration's conflict with U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media that she directed the filing of the complaint against Boasberg 'for making improper public comments about President Trump and his administration.' The complaint stems from remarks Boasberg allegedly made in March to Chief Justice John Roberts and other federal judges saying the administration would trigger a constitutional crisis by disregarding federal court rulings, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Associated Press. The comments 'have undermined the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,' the complaint says, adding that the administration has 'always complied with all court orders.' Boasberg is among several judges who have questioned whether the administration has complied with their orders. The meeting took place days before Boasberg issued an order blocking deportation flights that Trump was carrying out by invoking wartime authorities from an 18th century law. The judge's verbal order to turn around planes that were on the way to El Salvador was ignored. Boasberg has since found probable cause that the administration committed contempt of court. The comments were supposedly made during a meeting of the Judicial Conference, the federal judiciary's governing body. The remarks were first reported by the conservative website The Federalist, which said it obtained a memo summarizing the meeting. Boasberg, the chief judge in the district court in the nation's capital, is a member of the Judicial Conference. Its meetings are not public. The complaint calls for an investigation, the reassignment of the deportations case to another judge while the inquiry is ongoing and sanctions, including the possible recommendation of impeachment, if the investigation substantiates the allegations. Trump himself already has called for Boasberg's impeachment, which in turn prompted a rare response from Roberts rejecting the call. The complaint was filed with Judge Sri Srinivasan, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. More than 250 Venezuelans who were deported to a Salvadoran mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, were sent home to Venezuela earlier this month in a deal that also free 10 U.S. citizens and permanent residents who had been held by Venezuela. But the lawsuit over the deportations and the administration's response to Boasberg's order remains in his court.