A senior Brexiteer has warned that the UK’s Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with Brussels holds a hidden clause blocking the Government from taking back control of the country’s borders.
With a debate raging in the Conservative Party over whether to ditch the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and “politicised” Strasbourg court, former Brexit Party MEP has pointed to a new European Parliament report which suggests such a move could be blocked.
The row has broken out because of foreign judges in the ECHR blocking the deportation flights to Rwanda which has had an impact on the UK’s domestic courts.
The measure was the centrepiece of attempts to break the human traffickers’ business model and act as a deterrent to illegal migrants coming to the UK.
Tory MPs on the right including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman are pressing Rishi Sunak to ditch the ECHR.
But the European Parliament report suggests in its report that clauses in the TCA would allow Brussels to intervene if the UK tried to leave the ECHR.
The report noted that “the application of Part Three of the TCA on law enforcement and judicial cooperation in criminal matters is under the condition that the respect for democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the commitment to high-level protection of personal data.”
It added that the TCA “emphasises that the ECHR is a legally binding instrument in the UK and that legislative proposals should be compatible with its standards and in line with the rights and freedoms therein; underlines that Article 524 of the TCA provides that cooperation between the EU and the UK is based on the importance of giving effect to the rights and freedoms in that convention domestically.”
Crucially, it went on that the European Parliament “expresses its concerns over discussions in the UK on leaving the ECHR and recalls the concerns expressed by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights in this regard; recalls the provision in the TCA on the possible termination of this part of the TCA in the event that the UK or a Member State denounces the ECHR.”
Mr Habib warned: “It is remarkable the deftness with which our political class can distract.
“Membership of the ECHR is habitually blamed by this government for our inability to control illegal migration. What they do not tell you is that only three years ago, they affirmed our commitment to it in a new international treaty.
“Yes, even though the EU is not a member of the ECHR and even though the ECHR has nothing to do with it, Frost and Johnson have undertaken to the EU that we would uphold the convention.
“It is no wonder Suella Braverman could not set aside even small aspects of it for the Rwandan plan. The UK is bound to the ECHR.”
He added: “The European Court of Human Rights is not just an adjudicator of laws.
“It makes the law on human rights, guided only by a set of broad principles. Ironically, any law-making body not subject to a democratic legislature is itself acting in breach of human rights.
“The reason the British people cannot have their say on illegal migration is because they have had their democratic voice removed by the ECHR. If human rights are to be upheld, the ECHR should be abolished.”
