Lords could defeat plan to ignore ECHR small boat rulings, ministers warned

Ministers have been warned by a former head of the judiciary that plans to let the UK ignore rulings from the European court of human rights (ECHR) on small boat crossings could be defeated in the House of Lords.

John Thomas, who was lord chief justice of England and Wales from 2013 to 2017, said the move would probably amount to a “symbolic breach of the rule of law”.

He criticised the government for caving in to a group of hard-right Tory MPs who had threatened to launch a rebellion next week during the final parliamentary stages of the illegal migration bill.

About 30 backbench rebels have been pushing Rishi Sunak to harden the legislation so ministers can ignore interim rulings.

One of the Strasbourg court’s rule 39 injunctions blocked the government’s first attempt to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda last year. These interim measures are typically used to suspend an expulsion or extradition, often in the case of asylum seekers who fear persecution if they are returned to their home country.

Lord Thomas expressed concern that amendments, expected to be published on Thursday, would be tabled by the government to the illegal migration bill in advance of the crunch vote next Tuesday. “I think it is a very serious step for the government to be contemplating putting into force,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Defending the principle of the ECHR, he said the fact of interim decisions in some cases “does not in any way detract from the importance of a judgment being made by a court”.

Ignoring a ruling would be an “immensely serious step”, said Thomas, adding it “sets an extraordinarily bad example”.

If the bill clears its final hurdles in the Commons next week, he suggested it risked being defeated in the Lords.

Thomas said: “Many people would say having the power to ignore a court order is something – unless the circumstances were quite extraordinary – this is a step a government should never take because it is symbolic of a breach of the rule of law.”

Days of wrangling between the group of prospective Tory rebels – led by the backbencher Danny Kruger – and Sunak and the immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, ended on Wednesday.

The prime minister personally met members of the Common Sense Group of Tory MPs earlier this week and reassured them he had “skin in the game, too” having promised to “stop the boats”.

skip past newsletter promotion

Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

after newsletter promotion

There may also be a sop to another group of MPs who want the government to commit to establishing safe and legal routes available to people to claim asylum, with an annual cap on numbers.

Though some Tory MPs are pushing for the UK to leave the ECHR, they have conducted a “tactical retreat” from pushing for the government to do so before the next election. Instead they are refocusing their efforts on getting the commitment inserted into the party’s next manifesto.

Removing the UK altogether from the ECHR, the rights of which were incorporated into UK law in 1998 with the Human Rights Act, is viewed as problematic as the court was an integral part of the Good Friday agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland.