James Cleverly says leaving ECHR is ‘not silver bullet’ and leaves door open for leadership bid

Senior Tory Sir James Cleverly has said he is not convinced leaving the European Convention of Human Rights is a “silver bullet” to reduce criminal deportations – and would not rule out running for party leader.

The former foreign and home secretary appeared to diverge from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s stance on the ECHR in a speech about the challenges facing the Conservative Party and UK politics in general.

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Last month, Ms Badenoch launched a review into whether the UK should withdraw from the treaty that is a central part of UK human rights law and has been used to halt attempts to deport illegal immigrants.

She said she is “increasingly of the view” that leaving the ECHR would be necessary.

But Sir James said when he was home secretary, from November 2023 to July 2024, he noticed the UK had “one of the lowest deportation rates” of foreign criminals “amongst our European neighbours” – who are also ECHR signatories.

He said he was looking into why that was but the general election happened “before I got any credible answer”.

“But the bottom line is other signatories to the ECHR are kicking out foreign criminals much more than we are,” he told the Institute for Public Policy.

“And other countries who are not signatories to the ECHR are also struggling so I’m not convinced the ECHR is, on its own, a silver bullet.

“Particularly if we don’t do something about what I worry is a political activism in the legal system, which is trying to re-write British border immigration law policy through case law rather than through parliament.”

His comments are also in opposition to Robert Jenrick, who, like Sir James, unsuccessfully ran to be Tory leader, and has said the Tories must back leaving the ECHR to survive.

I don’t want to jump into leadership decision

Sir James left the door open to trying again to become Conservative leader, saying he did not want to “jump” into any future political moves.

Asked if he would try to become London mayor or Tory leader, he said: “I like being in government, I don’t like being in opposition, which is why I’m clear that I will play my part in helping to get Conservatives back into government, at every level of government.

“Exactly what I do next? I’ve forced a discipline on myself which is not to jump at something.”

He added that the Tories tried having a new leader “a number of times in the last government – it did not end well”.

The Braintree MP said after he lost the last leadership race he promised himself he “would spend some time thinking about exactly what I would do next”.

Voters will respond if Reform councils get stuff wrong

In the speech, he also attacked Labour, Reform and all other parties, saying they tell people what they want to hear but do not have any “deliverable” policies.

On the Conservatives’ strategy to beat Reform, which has been polling ahead of all other parties, he told Sky News: “So at the moment, Reform are very, very popular, but now they’re running stuff.

“And as I’ve said, we’ve now got some examples in local government.

“And local government is a bit of government people feel most important.

“This is the bit of government that runs their adult social care, their roads, their schools, their waste collection and when governments get stuff like that wrong, people notice and people respond.”

He said if Reform councillors do not “step up and perform” voters will be looking for alternatives – “and that’s what we need to do”.

“We need to make sure that we once again, are credible alternatives with a genuine plan and some energy and some direction,” he added.