Plea comes ahead of Supreme Court ruling on legality of Government’s plan to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda
Ministers should not wait for an election to act on the European Convention on Human Rights, senior Tories have said.
The MPs, representing groups comprising more than 60 backbenchers, said the Government should not wait for the manifesto to set out whether it would leave the convention, but instead introduce legislation to “make explicit” that it will not apply to migrants who reach the UK illegally on small boats.
Their plea comes ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of the Government’s plan to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda after the Court of Appeal ruled that the country was not safe for asylum seekers and could therefore breach their human rights under the ECHR.
The number of migrants crossing the Channel on small boats has passed 100,000 over five years. More than 750 people crossed in 14 boats on Thursday, the highest number on a single day this year.