In a sign of how far the debate has shifted Blair’s former Home Secretary Jack Straw has called for the UK to ‘decouple’ from the ECHR. The camel’s back at risk of breaking here…
Straw said:
“There is no doubt at all that the convention — and crucially its interpretation — is now being used in ways which were never, ever intended when the instrument was drafted in the late 40s and early 50s.”
The increasingly vocal former Home Secretary added the misuse of the convention was “never anticipated when we were discussing in great detail how we incorporated human rights into British law in the mid-90s.” His proposal is to amend the Human Rights Act to stipulate that UK courts don’t have to take account of the ECHR. Has been done by others…
Straw joins Blunkett and veteran Labour MP Graham Stringer in their calls for departure. Downing Street insisted yesterday at the Lobby briefing of journalists that leaving the ECHR or rewriting legislation related to it is “not something we are looking at” and minister Matthew Pennycook was right to say that would “put us in a club with Russia and Belarus.” Farage pledged yesterday to leave the convention and introduce a British Bill of Rights. Starmer boxed in, left behind…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”