WOODSTOCK, July 18: UK leader Keir Starmer pledged Thursday that his new Labour government would "never" leave the European Convention on Human Rights, adding that he would approach the issue of irregular migration "with humanity".
Starmer's Conservative predecessor Rishi Sunak had flirted with the idea of leaving the accord under pressure from his party's right flank, arguing that "foreign courts" should not stop Britain from deporting migrants to Rwanda.
But Starmer, elected two weeks ago, has scrapped the controversial scheme in which Britain has paid the east African country hundreds of millions of pounds without any migrants being forcibly sent there.
"This government will not commit taxpayer money to gimmicks," Starmer told the opening session of the European Political Community (EPC) summit near Oxford in England, where "illegal migration" is on the agenda.
"We are here to serve our country in the national interest in pursuit of solutions that will actually deliver results. And more than that, we will approach this issue with humanity and with a profound respect for international law," he said.
"That's why we scrapped the unworkable Rwanda scheme on day one. And it's why we will never withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights."
The UK is a founding member of the Council of Europe that is responsible for the ECHR, playing a key role in its drafting and becoming the first country to ratify the convention in 1951.
But it has faced mounting criticism from Conservatives and other right-wingers who say it is being abused by migrants crossing the Channel on boats from northern France.
Nearly 130,000 have landed on the shores of southeast England since 2018.
Starmer has promised to "smash the gangs" behind the crossings, which dogged the Tory administrations under Sunak and his predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
He announced a new border security command with beefed-up "counter-terror powers" to curb "immigration crime" in his first legislative agenda released on Wednesday. —AFP
