Eurocrats shut down Labour's hopes of ECHR reform
The head of the organisation overseeing the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has slapped down Labour's calls for reform.
Just a day after Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, called for the ECHR to 'evolve' or lose public trust, Alain Berset, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, declared that he was 'not calling for reform' of the convention.
Mr Berset appeared to distance himself from previous comments that he made no more than two weeks ago when he suggested that the ECHR must adapt in face of a growing backlash over migration, with 'no taboo' on rewriting its rules.
The future of the ECHR – and the UK's application and disapplication of it – is one of the key dividing lines between the UK political parties.
Nigel Farage's Reform wants out; Kemi Badenoch has suggested it is likely the UK will quit without reform of the ECHR; and Labour is seeking reform per se while drawing up new rules to curb judges' use of it in immigration cases.
It has been brought to the fore by The Telegraph's exposure of dozens of cases where foreign criminals and illegal migrants have avoided deportation by claiming their ECHR rights would be breached if they were removed.
In an interview with Politico, the political website, Mr Berset appeared to put himself at odds with all three main parties.
He said: 'I am not calling for reform of the European Convention on Human Rights, nor do I support any effort that would weaken it.
'It should never be used as a scapegoat in domestic political debates. When states face complex challenges, the answer is not to dismantle the legal guardrails they themselves helped build.
'The proper place for dialogue is through our institutions, not through pressure on the European Court of Human Rights or attempts to bypass the system.'
'Meaningful reform is impossible'
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said Mr Beset's comments 'proved... meaningful reform is impossible'.
He added: 'This proves what has long been clear: meaningful reform of the ECHR is impossible. Labour's fake plans to reform it is a ruse to trap us in the convention for decades more while our border crisis worsens. Starmer doesn't care enough about protecting the British public to leave.'
Meanwhile, Ms Mahmood has warned the ECHR was 'fraying' public confidence in the rule of law because it is out of step with common sense.
In a speech at the Council of Europe on Wednesday, she said public trust in the court was 'eroding' because it 'too often protects those who break the rules, rather than those who follow them'.
UK ministers are proposing to raise the threshold to make it harder for judges to grant the right to remain based on article 8 of the ECHR, which protects the right to a family life, and article 3, which protects against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
There is not just pressure from the UK. Last month, nine EU leaders wrote to the Council of Europe warning that the ECHR was preventing them from deporting foreign criminals.
They said European judges were interpreting the ECHR so widely that the 'wrong people' were being protected. This was placing 'too many limitations' on their governments' abilities to deport 'serious violent' offenders and drug dealers.
They warned that the ECHR was threatening the safety of citizens because the way it was being interpreted prevented governments from tracking foreign criminals they could not deport.
The nine – including Donald Tusk, the former president of the European Council and now the Polish prime minister, and the Italian premier Giorgia Meloni – said the ECHR was also undermining efforts to counter Russia's weaponising of migrants against the EU bloc.
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