Chris Philp declares Tories are 'increasingly' in favour of leaving the ECHR: 'We are serious about this'

Ahead of an address today on whether the nation should depart from the ECHR, Badenoch is expected to say: "I have always been clear, that if our national interest means that we need to leave the ECHR we will leave.

"But I say that not because of any particular obsession with international law or with our treaty arrangements. I say that because for me, the most important thing is making our country safer, richer and fairer."

Expanding on Badenoch's claims on GB News, the Shadow Home Secretary declared the party is "serious" about the policy, and are "going to do it properly".

Philp explained: "We have increasingly come to the view that we do need to leave the ECHR in order to allow our democratically elected Parliament to implement the will of the people in a whole range of different areas.

"Whether it's drilling for new oil and gas, whether it's protecting our veterans from vexatious prosecution, and most importantly of all, on immigration."

Making clear the party's stance on immigration, Philp added: "We think every single foreign criminal, not some but all foreign criminals, should be kicked out and returned to their country of origin. We think everybody who comes into this country illegally, for example by small boat, should be removed to some location outside of Europe."

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Kemi Badenoch sets out five tests on whether Britain should QUIT ECHR in just months
• Richard Tice calls GB News’s Steven Edginton ‘obsessed’ as he faces grilling over mass deportations
• SHOCK map shows Labour seats turning on asylum seekers as poll finds migration Starmer's WORST issue

Hitting out at the ECHR's framework, Philp accused Britain's immigration judges have "stretched it beyond recognition", in allowing several asylum seekers to remain on the grounds of "exceptional circumstances".

He stated: "The way that judges both in the Strasbourg court and in our domestic UK courts interpret the ECJR, which they've stretched and stretched and stretched beyond recognition, makes it in our view now very difficult for our democratically elected Parliament to do what the British public wants in those areas.

"So we're increasingly of the view, as I say, that we need to leave."

Sharing further detail on Badenoch's plan, Philp claimed that over the "next three to four months", the Tories will be drawing up their plan for an "official announcement" on the policy by the Autumn.

Philp said: "What Kemi is going to be announcing today is that over the next three or four months, so a pretty short period of time, Lord Wolfson, one of the country's most eminent barristers, will be going through the details of that question.

"How it would work in practice, what pitfalls there might be that need to be overcome, so that by the autumn will be in a position to make a final announcement."

Taking a swipe at Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and his stance on the ECHR, Philp claimed that the Tories will not be "shooting from the hip" like Farage "sometimes does" when it comes to policy making.

Philp concluded: "The direction of travel is pretty clear, and what makes us different to Reform is that we are going to take this three or four months to work through it properly, to go through the details, so that when we make an announcement, we know it's going to work and the British public can have confidence in it.

"But we don't want to do is just shoot from the hip, make stuff up without really having thought it through, which I'm afraid occasionally Nigel Farage does."