Home Secretary Suella Braverman says Tony Blair’s legacy has seen many aspects of policymaking scuppered in a scathing attack on the ex-PM.
In an exclusive GB News interview, the Home Secretary took aim at the Human Rights Act, saying it has “stymied” the Government’s ability to tackle issues such as deporting foreign paedophiles.
She told GB News Economics and Business Editor Liam Halligan that she terms the Human Rights Act as the “long tail of Blairism”, suggesting the ex-PM’s impact continues to be felt 17 years on.
Braverman said: “I think that there are legitimate questions that we need to start asking relating to our membership of the European Convention of Human Rights and its operation in the United Kingdom.
“We've seen there's a politicized and expansionist court in Strasbourg that regulates the Convention, sometimes at odds with British values.
“Whether it's our ability to remove people to Rwanda, as we saw last year, the European Court on Human Rights intervened at the eleventh hour to stop us from doing that.
“Whether it's our ability to deport foreign paedophiles, whether it's our ability to police protests, whether it's the issue on resolving the issue of Northern Ireland legacy claims or legal claims brought against our own soldiers who fought in Iraq.
“In many instances of policy making, the Human Rights Act - what I call is part of the long tail of Blairism - its operation, combined with the EHR and the Court have operated to stymie policymaking.”
Suella Braverman says Tony Blair's impact is having a negative toll on criminal justice
Image: GB News
The Home Secretary spoke to Liam Halligan about her success when referring the Colston Four to the Court of Appeal in a “fine” legal judgment.
The group had been acquitted of criminal damage when they threw a statue of Edward Colston into the port in Bristol.
Braverman’s argument that the protesters had caused criminal damage was upheld by the Court of Appeal.
Questioned on “proving many people wrong”, she said: “I really welcomed the decision, ultimately from the Court of Appeal, which vindicated the approach that I took.
The Human Rights Act - introduced by Tony Blair's government in 1998 - has come in for criticism
Victoria Jones
“The problem that we identified was that protesters had been charged with criminal damage. They had pulled down the statue.
“And let's put aside the historical connotations of the statue. It was, to my mind, a legitimate charge of criminal damage. At trial, they relied on human rights as a defence, and that was upheld. And they were thereafter acquitted.
“I wasn’t able to overturn the verdict of the jury in the trial, but what my referral did was it raised the issue of law and it asked senior judges to establish whether indeed the Human Rights Act or articles in the European Convention on Human Rights could act as a defence to charges of criminal damage.
“And the Court of Appeal ruled in my favour and said “No”.”