Robert Jenrick backs move to quit ECHR in Tory leadership row over immigration
The ex-immigration minister insists it is time to cap the number of people moving to Britain.
Immigration will only be cut if Britain quits the European Convention on Human Rights, a Tory leadership contender warned.
Robert Jenrick dismissed claims by rivals that promising to sever ties with the Strasbourg court that enforces it was a quick fix.
The ex-immigration minister said any attempt to reform the protections it offers would take decades.
He said: “On immigration, I’ve been very, very clear to people about what my view is. I think that we begin to bring back the millions of voters we lost to Reform by immediately, this autumn, being clear about where we stand.
“On legal migration that is a cap set by parliament in the tens of thousands."
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Mr Jenrick added: “On illegal migration … if you come here illegally, you’re detained, you’re removed within days either back to Albania or to a safe third country like Rwanda, whatever is available in the years ahead.
“To do that, I have come to the conclusion that we have to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. I don’t believe it’s reformable. I don’t say this from a particularly ideological perspective, although I do believe in the sovereignty of parliament. I do it from having travelled across Europe.
“There is no consensus within Europe about how to reform it. The only thing that everyone agrees on is that any attempt to reform it would be a project of decades and I just do not think that we have time to do that.
“The public are demanding action on this they are aghast at what is happening in the English Channel, and if we were lucky enough to re-enter government, the public would not give us a third chance if we then wasted years and years in an attempt to renegotiate our terms, which would be as doomed to fail as David Cameron’s attempt to renegotiate our membership of the European Union.”
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Rival Kemi Badenoch said threatening to quit was an attempt to provide “easy answers” while another hopeful, shadow home secretary James Cleverly also suggested that promising to leave the ECHR was offering “soundbites and quick fixes” rather than working to resolve a complex issue.
Voting in the contest begins on Wednesday and MPs will repeat the process a number of times over the coming weeks until two final candidates are selected for the Conservative members to choose between.
There are 121 Tory MPs and sources in Mr Jenrick’s campaign said they will get the 41 votes needed to guarantee finishing in the top two.
A campaign source said they were “very confident as a team that we have an absolutely nailed-on route to get 41 votes and get into the final two” with a “broad coalition of support” from MPs across the party, from centrist moderates to the Conservative right.
