According to Theresa May’s former chief of staff, Britain will need to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in order to recover control of its borders.
Nick Timothy was speaking on a report he wrote for the Centre of Policy Studies on how the government may deal with the present migrant problem.
“In the report, we make recommendations for things that could change in the application of human rights law consistent with continued membership,” he told GB News.
“But it is our view that ultimately, we probably will have to leave the European Convention to do the things we need to do to regain control.”
He was questioned about the Home Secretary’s reaction to the report’s recommendations in an interview with Emily Carver.
“She says she doesn’t agree with every proposal in it,” he remarked. “And I think we can hazard a guess that the Government isn’t about to introduce ID cards, which is one of our proposals .”
“Obviously it’s a big thing for the Home Secretary to write a foreword in such positive terms for a report that contains policies in this way.”
When asked about the misuse of the Modern Slavery Act, Mr Timothy said, “I think this is one particular part of the story. The Modern Slavery Act is good legislation. It’s important legislation. It’s designed to protect people from being trafficked and from being forced into labour against their will.”
“Unfortunately, it is increasingly being used by people who are illegal immigrants or people whose asylum claims are not going as they had hoped.”
“We have some proposals to tighten up the Modern Slavery Act by changing evidential thresholds, trying to prevent people from making claims in a kind of tactical way later on, and if necessary, whether there was evidence of serious widespread abuse, excluding nationalities from the provisions of the Act until order is regained.”
He told GB News that the government funds pro-immigrant organisations and lobbying groups: “The Government pays for certain services from some charities, which are completely legitimate and fine.”
“But it is highly questionable that so much public money is going into organisations that are then capable of putting significant resources into challenging government policy and into stopping the removal of people who I think quite legitimately ministers conclude should have no right to be here.”
