British voters want foreign human rights court to stop interfering with UK laws - poll

British voters want foreign human rights court to stop interfering with UK laws - poll

A new poll has suggested that a majority of British voters may be willing to support the end of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the UK.

An exclusive poll has shown that a majority of voters who hold an opinion believe the Strasbourg based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) should no longer have the power to overturn British laws. The survey by Techne UK comes ahead of a year where the ECHR;s jurisdiction in Britain is going to again come into focus with Rishi Sunak vowing to end the migrant crisis across the Channel.
According to the poll by Techne UK for Express.co.uk, 42 percent agree that the powers of the ECHR over British laws should be ended while 34 percent diagreed and 24 percent said they did not know.
It follows fury earlier this year when an unnamed judge made a late night decision to bar deportation flights to Rwanda of illegal migrants who had come acorss the English Channel in small boats.
The judge in effect has delayed the scheme by months and has never been identified by the eCHR after he made his decision in private without hearing any evidence from the UK Government.

However, the ECHR has previously made a series of controversial decisions including demanding that the UK gives voting rights to prisoners which was ignored by Westminster.

This month, Rishi Sunak unveiled a major new plan to end the illegal migrant crisis.

This included a new deal with Albania to return illegal migrants to that country who account for around 30 percent of the total number coming across the Channel.

He also said he would bring in a law next year to allow people arriving illegally to be deported immediately to their country of origin or a safe country they came through.

And he vowed to speed up the processing for asylum applications.

However, the UK is seen to be soft on asylum with 75 percent of applications accepted compared to 25 percent in France.
Mr Sunak said: "It is unfair that people come here illegally. It is unfair on those with a genuine case for asylum when our capacity to help is taken up by people coming through and from countries that are perfectly safe.

"It is unfair on those who migrate here legally, when others come here by cheating the system and above all, it is unfair on the British people who play by the rules when others come here illegally and benefit from breaking those rules."

The push to tackle the issue has come from his Home Secretary Suella Braverman who only agreed to take the job if she could have a free hand in tackling illegal migration.

However, it is known that she has previously pushed for Britain to end the jurisdition of the ECHR and, as Attorney General, told Boris Johnson, when he was Prime Minister, that it would be the only way to end the migrant crisis

The survey of 1,624 voters over December 21 and 22 showed that 42 percent thought the ECHR should not be able to veto British laws.

Strongest support for ending ECHR jurisdiction came from former 2016 Leave cvoters on 52 percent while only 34 percent of Remainers backed the idea.

Former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has argued that "Brexit will not be complete" until the jurisdiction of the Strasbourg based court is ended.

Jacob Rees-Mogg alleged in Parliament that the decision made to block the Rwanda scheme was by a "Russian judge dragged out of a bar late at night."

He added: "Can this stand?"