In his first speech as an MP, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for a referendum on UK membership of the European Court of Human Rights, which would retain a say in immigration policy after Britain leaves the EU.
In his first speech to Parliament after being elected MP for Clacton earlier this month, Nigel Farage said leaving the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) was the only way for the UK to end the migrant boat crisis in the English Channel.
“This would stop if we started deporting illegal immigrants. Then we would stop paying smugglers. But to do that we would need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.”
“But I have an interesting suggestion, which I think would revitalise politics, interest the public and significantly increase voter turnout: why not hold a referendum on whether we should remain a member state of the European Convention on Human Rights?”
Farage, who led the Leave campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum, has been a long-time opponent of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights. Britain successfully left the EU, but that did not affect Britain’s membership of the ECHR, which is technically a separate institution, despite sharing a flag, anthem and even a campus in France with the EU.
The dangers of the UK’s continued membership of the ECtHR after three Conservative prime ministers refused to withdraw from the body were publicly demonstrated in the summer of 2022 when the European Court of Human Rights controversially intervened to block migrant return flights to Rwanda, leaving Boris Johnson’s government-era plans in legal limbo for years.
Regaining control? UK blocks deportation of 53 terrorists due to European Human Rights Acthttps://t.co/eblqDnBgZz
—Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 16, 2023
However, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s generally pro-European, anti-Brexit Labour party now in power, it is unlikely that the UK will leave the European Convention on Human Rights in the next five years, and Starmer has already told his European colleagues that he has no plans to withdraw from the Convention.
Pointing to the pro-European sentiment in the House of Commons, now controlled by his own Labour party, Farage, a former member of the European Parliament, said on Tuesday: “I probably didn’t expect to come here and find my reform team outnumbered – outnumbered by the European Parliament.”
“Because I feel there are more Brexit supporters in the European Parliament than there will be in the 2024 European Parliament. It is a Remain parliament, but I suspect in many cases it is actually a re-join parliament.”
The Reform Party leader also spoke of the urgent need for legal immigration reform, which under the previous Conservative government had allowed more than a million foreigners into the country each year, despite promises to cut it to just tens of thousands.
Mr Farage argued the open door system, which was launched under the government of former Labour prime minister Tony Blair, “pleases and pleases big business, particularly the huge multinationals who want as much cheap labour as they can without regard for the impact on working class families and people”.
“I believe the population explosion has more of an impact on the quality of life of ordinary people than any other issue,” Farage said.
Exclusive: Nigel FarageCapitalism is dead, we live in corporatismhttps://t.co/wb1Pf4CU6g
—Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 25, 2024
