Tories to open the door to quitting ECHR - but no cast iron guarantee
The Prime Minister is understood to have resisted calls to quit the ECHR.
Rishi Sunak will open the door to leaving the European Court of Human Rights in the Conservatives’ manifesto.
The Prime Minister is understood to have resisted calls to quit the ECHR.
But the Tories’ manifesto will state that the Government will choose protecting the UK’s borders and ending the Channel migrant crisis over membership of the Strasbourg court.
A source told the Telegraph: “Ultimately if it became a choice of one or the other, we would choose security of our borders.”
But the manifesto will not make a threat of leaving the convention.
It will instead demand reform of the ECHR, with the Government increasingly stressing that international agreements must be fit for purpose in the era of mass migration.
Pressure is intensifying on the continent of Europe to tackle illegal migration.
Tory sources said the relationship with the ECHR was like a “chess game” where the Government needed to be “clear and firm” it would not let it interfere with flights and would put border security ahead of a foreign court.
“We don’t need to say more than that. It’s hypothetical. We don’t know if they would intervene,” said a source.
Mr Sunak has said he will choose protecting Britain’s borders over remaining in the ECHR.
But pledging to quit the convention could tear the Conservative Party in two.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, Attorney General Victoria Prentis and even Home Secretary James Cleverly are among those said to be against quitting the ECHR.
