Shabana Mahmood is planning to “massively” restrict the application of key articles of the European Convention on Human Rights to curb small boat crossings, The i Paper understands.
The Home Secretary will also make changes to how the Refugee Convention is applied, as well as the Modern Slavery Act, to address the issue of deportations of illegal migrants being blocked in the courts.
Significantly reducing the level of Channel crossings is seen by Labour as essential to the party being able to beat Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and winning re-election.
In recent months, ministers have come to the conclusion that major changes are needed to how international law is interpreted to prevent unsuccessful asylum seekers from using the courts to block their deportations.
While Starmer has ruled out leaving the ECHR on the basis that it could scupper returns deals with other countries, the Home Office is planning to “massively” restrict the circumstances in which Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention can be used to block removals, The i Paper understands.
Article 3 bans torture or degrading treatment while 8 protects the right to private and family life.
Critics believed that the courts interpret these articles too widely, with deportations being stopped, reportedly, due to pet ownership under the right to family life or because of the standards of prisons under article 3.
In its immigration white paper in May, the Government promised legislation to “clarify” how the right to a family life should apply to immigration cases.
As well as changes to the interpretation of the ECHR, the application of the Refugee Convention is another area where ministers believe Britain can act “unilaterally” to unblock removals, while the Modern Slavery Act can be directly amended because it is domestic legislation.
Mahmood expressed anger earlier this month when a deportation of an Eritrean man under the government’s new one-in one-out deal with France was blocked by the courts under the Modern Slavery Act after he claimed he had been trafficked.
“Last minute attempts to frustrate a removal are intolerable, and I will fight them at every step,” she said. “I will fight to end vexatious, last minute challenges.
A Home Office source told The i Paper that people would be “surprised” just how radical the Government was willing to be to tackle the boats.
However, the Government is not planning to follow a recommendation from the former Labour home secretary Jack Straw to formally “decouple” the ECHR from the Human Rights Act.
On Wednesday, Starmer confirmed to the BBC that the Government was going to “look again at the interpretation” of a wide range of international law, although he said it would not “tear them down”.
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Read More“I believe that those genuinely fleeing persecution should be afforded asylum and that is a compassionate act,” he said.
Pushed on the details, he said: “It’s article 3, or article 8, they’re the two that are most immediately in play. But it’s more than that, it’s the refugee conventions, it’s the torture conventions, it’s conventions of the rights of children.
“I believe in those instruments, I believe in the rule of law, and I think they matter. But all international instruments, and this is long established, have to be applied in the circumstances as they are now.”
The charity Freedom from Torture warned against “rolling back rights that keep everyone safe from abuse”.
Chief executive Sonya Sceats said: “Chipping away at Article 3 of the ECHR risks setting in train the destruction of the absolute ban on torture, the most appalling form of abuse, which Britain helped forge and champion over centuries.
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