Keir Starmer has warned the courts must get tougher on asylum claims as he scrambles to quell public alarm over immigration.
The PM said there was need to ‘look again’ at the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as other international treaties.
Although he stressed he did not want to tear up the agreements, he admitted ‘mass migration’ meant they have to be applied differently.
The comments came in a round of interviews as Sir Keir wraps up a torrid Labour conference in Liverpool.
Keir Starmer said there was need to ‘look again’ at the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as other international treaties
Although he stressed he did not want to tear up the agreements, he admitted ‘mass migration’ meant they have to be applied differently. Pictured, file picture of a Channel crossing
The premier has been struggling to convince his anxious party that he can turn round dire polls showing Nigel Farage on track to storm Downing Street.
Sir Keir told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there was a difference between deporting someone to ‘summary execution’ and sending them to somewhere with a different level of healthcare or prison conditions.
He said ministers should ‘look at issues like that again’, over the European Convention on Human Rights article 3 on protection from torture, and inhumane and degrading treatment.
‘I think there’s a difference between someone being deported to summary execution, and someone who is simply going somewhere where they don’t have the same level of healthcare, or for that matter the same prison conditions,’ Sir Keir said.
‘And therefore I do think we should look at issues like that again, I think there’s quite an appetite to look at issues like that again.’
