Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP said the Conservatives have "increasingly come to the view that we do need to leave the ECHR", as leader Kemi Badenoch sets out her plan for the UK's exit.Badenoch will outline her "five tests" on Britain leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, claiming she will "commit to leave" if it is "in the national interest".FULL STORY HERE.
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00:00Well, we have increasingly come to the view that we do need to leave the ECHR in order to allow our democratically elected parliament to implement the will of the people in a whole range of different areas, whether it's drilling for new oil and gas, whether it's protecting our veterans from vexatious prosecution, and most importantly of all, on immigration, where we think every single foreign criminal, not some, but all foreign criminals, should be kicked out and returned to their country of origin.
00:29We think everybody who comes into this country illegally, for example, by a small boat, should be removed to some location outside of Europe.
00:37Now, the way that judges, both in the Strasbourg court and in our domestic UK courts, interpret the ECHR, which they've stretched and stretched and stretched beyond recognition, makes it, in our view now, very difficult for our democratically elected parliament to do what the British public wants in those areas.
00:56So we're increasingly, of the view, as I say, we need to leave.
00:59So what we're going to be, what Kemi's going to be announcing today is that over the next three or four months, so pretty short period of time, Lord Wolfson, one of the country's most eminent barristers, will be going through the details of that question, how it would work in practice, what pitfalls there might be that need to be overcome,
01:17so that by the autumn, we'll be in a position to make a final announcement.
01:22But I think the direction of travel, from what I've just said, is pretty clear.
01:27And what makes us different to reform that you mentioned in the intro, is that we are going to take this three or four months to work through it properly,
01:34to go through the details, so that when we make an announcement, we know it's going to work and the British public can have confidence in it.
01:40What we don't want to do is just shoot from the hip, make stuff up, without really having thought it through, which I'm afraid occasionally, Nigel Farage does.
01:47So you're getting this in, you're getting this...
01:49We're going to do the proper work.
01:51OK, you're getting this in, Chris, ahead of conference season, and you're pretty sure this is going to become policy?
01:57Well, I don't want to pre-empt the work Lord Wolfson does, because we do need to do the proper work.
02:04But obviously, you know, you've heard the direction of travel, and you'll hear Kemi's words on this later on.
02:10She's going to be pretty clear.
02:11And the most important principle is, you know, people elected by the public, to that building behind me, to Parliament,
02:18need to do what the public want them to do, and that includes protecting veterans, you know, and making sure we control our borders.
02:24Yeah, but you could have... Chris, Chris, you could have thought of this years ago and done something about it
02:30when it actually might have saved the election for you.
02:34Well, look, there were previous attempts to reform the ECHR that didn't work.
02:37I mean, Ken Clarke tried it in 2012, it didn't work.
02:40Theresa May tried legislating in 2014 and 2015.
02:43So why should we believe anything?
02:45When it came... Let me finish.
02:46Well, let... Big Bob, we cut... And just let me finish.
02:49We were... We actually did pass a law suspending, essentially disapplying the Human Rights Act when it came to Rwanda,
02:55but obviously we ran out of time and the election happened.
02:58Look, we know we can't mess around anymore.
02:59We know the last government... Well, successive governments, but including the last government,
03:03made mistakes on immigration, right?
03:05We know that. We accept that. Big mistakes.
03:08We are determined that the Conservative Party, under new leadership,
03:13will never make those mistakes again.
03:14We have learnt, and we are developing, and have developed in some cases already,
03:19detailed, credible plans to sort this out.
03:21Those include things like a binding annual cap on migration, for instance.
03:26And now this policy on the ECHR, we are serious about this, but we are going to do it properly.
03:31Obviously, it's very tempting just to shoot from the hip and say,
03:34oh, yeah, we'll do this, we'll do that, like Nigel Farage does.
03:37But actually, that's not credible.
03:39And if you do that, and you don't think it through properly,
03:41it won't work in practice, and that's not what the British public wants.