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All foreign criminals 'should be kicked out and returned to their country', Chris Philp claims
Jun 6, 2025
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP said the Conservatives have "increasingly come to the view that we do need to leave the ECHR", as leader Kemi Badenoch sets out her plan for the UK's exit.Badenoch will outline her "five tests" on Britain leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, claiming she will "commit to leave" if it is "in the national interest".FULL STORY HERE.
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0:00
Well, we have increasingly come to the view that we do need to leave the ECHR
0:04
in order to allow our democratically elected Parliament to implement the will of the people in a whole range of different areas
0:11
whether it's drilling for new oil and gas, whether it's protecting our veterans from vexatious prosecution
0:18
and most importantly of all, on immigration, where we think every single foreign criminal, not some
0:24
but all foreign criminals should be kicked out and returned to their country of origin
0:28
We think everybody who comes into this country illegally, for example, by a small boat, should be removed to some location outside of Europe
0:37
Now, the way that judges, both in the Strasbourg court and in our domestic UK courts, interpret the ECHR, which they've stretched and stretched and stretched beyond recognition
0:49
makes it, in our view now, very difficult for our democratically elected parliament to do what the British public wants in those areas
0:56
so we're increasingly, as I say, we need to leave. So what we're going to be, what Kemi's going to be announcing today
1:01
is that over the next three or four months, so a pretty short period of time
1:06
Lord Wolfson, one of the country's most eminent barristers, will be going through the details of that question
1:13
how it would work in practice, what pitfalls there might be that need to be overcome
1:17
so that by the autumn we'll be in a position to make a final announcement
1:22
But I think the direction of travel, from what I've just said, is pretty clear
1:27
And what makes us different to reform that you mentioned in the intro is that we are going to take this three or four months
1:32
to work through it properly, to go through the details, so that when we make an announcement, we know it's going to work
1:38
and the British public can have confidence in it. What we don't want to do is just shoot from the hip, make stuff up
1:43
without really having thought it through, which I afraid occasionally Nigel Farage does So you getting this in you getting this We going to do the proper work OK you getting this in Chris ahead of conference season and you pretty sure this is going to become policy
1:59
Well, I don't want to pre-empt the work Lord Walson does, because we do need to do the proper work
2:03
But obviously, you know, you've heard the direction of travel, and you'll hear Kemi's words on this later on
2:10
She's going to be pretty clear. And the most important principle is, you know, people elected by the public to that building behind me
2:17
to Parliament need to do what the public want them to do, and that includes protecting veterans
2:21
and making sure we control our borders. Chris, you could have thought of this years ago and done something
2:29
about it when it actually might have saved the election for you. Well, look, there were
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previous attempts to reform the ECHR that didn't work. Ken Clarke tried it in 2012, it didn't
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work. Theresa May tried legislating in 2014 and 15. So why should we believe anything..
2:45
Let me finish. we'll let big and just let me finish we actually did pass a law
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suspending essentially disapplying the Human Rights Act when it came to Rwanda
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but obviously we ran out of time and the election happened look we know we can't mess around anymore
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we know the last government successive governments but including the last government
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made mistakes on immigration we know that, we accept that, big mistakes
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we are determined that the Conservative Party under new leadership will never make
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those mistakes again, we have learnt and we are developing, and have developed in some cases already
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detailed, credible plans to sort this out. Those include things like a binding annual cap on migration, for instance
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And now this policy on the ECHR, we are serious about this, but we are going to do it properly
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Obviously, it's very tempting just to shoot from the hip and say, oh, yeah, we'll do this, we'll do that, like Nigel Farage does
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But actually, that's not credible. And if you do that and you don't think it through properly
3:41
it won't work in practice, and that is not what the British public want
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