Meddling Euro judges risk planting seeds of own destruction by overreaching in domestic politics, warns Lord Cameron
EURO judges risk planting the seeds of their own destruction by meddling in domestic politics, Lord Cameron has warned.
Their ruling against Switzerland for not doing enough on climate change was a dangerous overreach, the Foreign Secretary said yesterday.
Many Tory MPs want to leave the European Court of Human Rights to stop it thwarting efforts to stop illegal migration.
Rishi Sunak has vowed to quit the Strasbourg court if it blocks flights to Rwanda.
While Lord Cameron said there were no plans to leave the ECHR, he put its judges on notice that members would not tolerate them blocking elected governments.
He told peers: “There are occasions this court does overreach itself — we saw one last week with a judgment against Switzerland.
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“I think it’s dangerous because ultimately we’re going to solve climate change through political will and the arguments we put to the electorate.
“These organisations do good work, but if they overreach they plant the seeds of their own destruction.”
A rump of Tory MPs are lobbying the PM to put leaving the ECHR in the party’s election manifesto.
Yesterday former Home Secretary Suella Braverman said our membership of the court is “choking” British democracy.
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Speaking at the National Conservatism conference, she said: “Until we are rid of it, our governments will find themselves impotent.
“Through a combination of the ECHR and Labour’s Human Rights Act, the Strasbourg Court is delivering judgements that too often favour the rights of the criminal minority over the rights and safety of the law-abiding majority.”
What is the ECHR and who are its critics?
What is the European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights has jurisdiction in the 46 countries that are subscribed to the European Convention of Human Rights.
Based in Strasbourg, its judges rule on possible breaches of the 16 Articles that make up the Convention.
It emerged from the Second World War and has been in place since 1953 where Britain was a founding member.
The court is entirely separate from the European Union meaning the UK is still bound by its rulings.
Large sections of the Convention are enshrined in UK law via the 1998 Human Rights Act.
Why do critics want to leave it?
In recent years there have been growing calls to leave the ECHR, which critics accuse of becoming increasingly political.
This culminated in 2022, when an anonymous judge ordered the British government to abort its first Rwanda flight while the plane was on the runway.
Fears of overreach also boiled over last week when Strasbourg ruled against the Swiss Government for not doing enough to stop climate change.
Proponents of the ECHR say leaving would put Britain in the same club as Russia and Belarus as the continent’s only non-members.
But critics like Liz Truss hit back that many countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia have good human rights without needing a third party court.
What has Rishi Sunak said?
Rishi Sunak has said he would be prepared to quit the ECHR if that is what it takes to stop the boats.
He told our Never Mind The Ballots show: “I believe that border security and controlling illegal migration is more important than our membership of any foreign court.”
Separately, the Rwanda Bill gives ministers the powers to ignore the so-called “Pyjama Injunctions” which lets judges cast down eleventh-hour vetos in the dead of night.