Robert Jenrick launched a renewed assault on the ECHR this morning (Image: PA)
Robert Jenrick has claimed that Winston Churchill, who helped found the European Convention on Human Rights, would “turn in his grave” if he could see the harm it is now doing to Britain.
In a breakfast rally at Tory conference this morning, Mr Jenrick issued a renewed attack on the human rights treaty, which he is adamant Britain must leave in order to restore sovereignty over our borders.
The Tory leadership frontrunner described the document as “noble” in its origins, but accused activist foreign judges of causing it to become “twisted and bent out of all shape” with their rulings since the 1970s.
He rallied: “Churchill, friends, would turn in his grave if he saw what had happened to this document today.
“Churchill wanted us to defend the right of family life, not the right for terrorists to remain in our country, on our streets, terrorising British citizens. This needs to end!”
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Mr Jenrick said Churchill is rolling in his grave over the ECHR’s transformation (Image: PA)
He provided examples of where the ECHR is now endangering Britons in favour of upholding the rights of foreign terrorists, murderers, rapists and paedophiles.
He pointed to a case last month where a Ugandan criminal clubbed someone to death in the back of an ambulance, but was unable to be deported from the UK because according to the ECHR, the mental health provision in Uganda is not good enough.
In another example, he cited the case of Wabi Mohammad, a Somali terrorist who in the aftermath of the of the 7/7 bombings plotted to blow up Brits on trains in London, going so far as to plant four bombs that thankfully failed to detonate.
He was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and after being released halfway through his sentence the UK government tried to deport him, however they were blocked because of the ECHR.
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Robert Jenrick remains the frontrunner of the contest (Image: Getty)
Mr Jenrick fumed: “This man is on our streets right now, and you are paying for him to be monitored by our security services, day and night, for years to come. That is shameful.
“I am not prepared to subject the British people to that any longer.
“As you know it is going to be impossible to secure our borders while we remain in the European Convention on Human Rights. It was one of the principal reasons that the Supreme Court gave for blocking our Rwanda policy.”
He also cited top judge Lord Sumption, who has since said that the court is ‘not even a court any more’ as it is actively making new laws that are not in the original treaty.
Mr Jenrick pointed to the Black Lives Matter rioters who committed criminal damage when tearing down the statue of Edward Coulston in Bristol, only to have their actions protected by the ECHR under the guise of right to protest.
He also cited the recent case of a referendum in Switzerland on Net Zero being ruled against because the court decided it breached the government’s ECHR obligation to protect citizens from the “serious adverse effects” of climate change.
The Tory frontrunner drew a line from to the new mission to leave the jurisdiction of the court, saying his party must now “finish the job”.