RISHI SUNAK IS NOT SERIOUS ABOUT EAVING THE ECHR, BRAVERMAN CLAIMS

Keeping Rishi Sunak as Tory leader could scupper the chance to leave the European Convention on Human Rights for 'a generation', Suella Braverman will warn today.

In an incendiary speech, the former home secretary and long-time ECHR opponent will accuse the Prime Minister of not being serious about leaving the treaty.

She will brand suggestions from No 10 that the PM is open to leaving as 'inauthentic'.

And she will warn Right-leaning party colleagues eager to leave that promising to do so in a losing election manifesto risks 'setting the cause back' for a decade or more.

This is because Labour, which wants to remain in the ECHR, is expected to storm to victory with such a big majority it could be at least two terms before the Tories can regain power.

Ms Braverman's explosive intervention will be seen as a blatant attempt to rally MPs to topple Mr Sunak and install her as PM before the general election, to keep the dream of leaving the ECHR alive.

The issue threatens to become a major challenge to Mr Sunak's authority once again in the coming days, with the Rwanda bill potentially passing by the end of this week.

But there are fears the long-awaited deportation flights could yet be thwarted by European judges in Strasbourg, who administer the ECHR.

They previously blocked the flights on the grounds that sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda could breach their human rights.

A second attempt to derail the policy would pile pressure on the PM to leave the pact.

He has repeatedly pledged not to allow 'a foreign court' to block his flagship asylum policy again.

Last week he suggested he could leave the convention following an 'illegitimate' ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that imposes a duty on governments to achieve net zero, after it ruled the human rights of a group of Swiss women had been violated by their government's failure to act quickly enough to tackle climate change. The ruling also applies to the UK.

In her speech at the National Conservatism conference in Brussels today, Ms Braverman will accuse the PM of paying lip service to the idea of leaving the treaty and warn MPs that a change of leadership may be necessary to secure Britain's withdrawal.

She will say: 'The current UK Government doesn't have the political will to take on the ECHR. It's no surprise that recent noises in this direction are easily dismissed as inauthentic. Any attempt to include a plan for ECHR withdrawal in a losing Conservative election manifesto risks setting the cause back a generation.'

2024-04-15T21:52:27Z dg43tfdfdgfd