JUSTICE Secretary Dominic Raab says the European Court of Human Rights will no longer be able to stop the deportation of illegal immigrants when Parliament approves the new Bill of Rights.
Asked why it has taken so long to publish a Bill of Rights, Mr Raab said its introduction has been delayed by Brexit.
Speaking to GB News, he said: “Now that Brexit is delivered, and we dealt with that issue, I think it’s right that we restore some common sense to our human rights regime.
“And so we’re staying in the European convention. I think that’s the right thing to do.
“I don’t think we need to leave it and indeed, leaving it wouldn’t really solve any more of our problems but we will stay within the convention and overhaul the Human Rights Act.”
He added: “That gives us much greater leeway margin appreciation over the application of rights and in particular there are areas where we want to strengthen liberty, freedom of expression, freedom of speech.
“But there are also areas where we want to be able to protect the public, my parole reforms, dealing with the threat of ideologues and terrorists inside prison.
“And of course, as I’ve already said, deportation of foreign national offenders, so we’ll get the balance right, protect our proud tradition of liberty but also restore some common sense.”
Asked if the new law would allow deportation flights to Rwanda to go ahead, he said: “The idea that after consideration in three UK courts, a so-called interim 39 order could be handed down from Strasburg effectively an injunction to stop the flights going when the UK courts have said they’re okay, that is something which our Bill of Rights squarely addresses, and makes clear that those orders have no effect in the UK courts.”
Asked by GB News political correspondent Tom Harwood about today’s inflation figures, Mr Raab said the problem is a global one.
“We know that inflation will come back down next year,” he said.
“We just need some wage restraint across the board to prevent a vicious cycle, which of course, if we gave in to the unions it would only hurt the very poorest and most vulnerable and the lowest paid workers in our society, which is why it’s important to take a firm line in relation to the industrial action that we’ve seen from the RMT.”
He added: “What we got to do is just get that balance, right.
“We understand that the challenge that low paid workers have to make ends meet, which is why we’ve got Universal Credit, the national living wage, boosting their pay packets in a responsible way.
“But if we see wage inflation go up across the board, then inflation will stay higher for longer, and that will only undermine and undercut the wages and the pay of the lowest paid in our society.”
