EU minister hits back at Labour grandees over leaving ECHR - telling LBC it'll make it harder to tackle migration

Nick Thomas-Symonds told LBC that it was "misleading" to say that leaving the convention would help to solve the issue.

It comes after the former Home Secretary, Jack Straw, said Sir Keir should “decouple” British laws from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to enable more migrants to be deported.

And Lord Blunkett said the Government should follow the example of countries such as Germany and suspend parts of the ECHR to tackle the issue.

But in a speech this morning making the case for a new deal with the EU which would align us on food standards, the EU chief in charge of negotiating, slapped down those arguments.

He told LBC that "international cooperation is critical to dealing with this issue" and leaving the ECHR would "make it significantly harder" to make progress on stopping small boat crossings.

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Mr Thomas Symonds said it would mean "joining Belarus and Russia as the two other European nations who are not signatories".

He added: "That is not going to assist with getting the international cooperation that we need to tackle this issue.

"In fact, it's going to make it significantly harder to do it... that international cooperation is critical to dealing with this issue. The people smugglers operate over thousands of miles and numerous borders.

"So what we are interested in is the hard yards of delivery on this. There isn't a silver bullet and to pretend otherwise is frankly, misleading."

Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, is looking into the application of Article 3 and 8 of the treaty - over concerns that it may not be being properly implemented by lower tier judges.

Sir Keir, a former human rights lawyer, is resolutely opposed to either suspending or leaving the convention.

No10 said yesterday that leaving the ECHR would not be in the national interest.

A spokesperson said: "The government has got a clear plan to fix the asylum system that was left in chaos the previous when people weren't being returned."

Nigel Farage vowed yesterday to leave the Convention, saying it was the only way to tackle migration.

He also suggested the Good Friday Agreement could be "renegotiated" to remove references to the convention.

But Government figures hit back - saying it would put at risk the Good Friday Agreement and peace in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has said Mr Farage "hasn’t the faintest idea of the consequences" of doing so.

Mr Benn added that to jeopardise the Good Friday agreement, which secured peace in Northern Ireland, would be "dangerously irresponsible".

Labour former home secretary Lord Blunkett said last week that the Government had so far failed to offer a “comprehensive answer or an understandable narrative” on tackling the crisis.

Lord Blunkett, who has suggested temporarily suspending elements of the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Refugee Convention to deal with the problem, said Sir Keir had to be “radical” in his approach.

A YouGov poll for The Times found that 71% per cent of voters believe the Prime Minister is handling the asylum hotel issue badly, including 56% of Labour supporters.

Lord Blunkett told the newspaper: “I think that the individual measures the Government has taken are extremely helpful in their own right but don’t add up either to a comprehensive answer or an understandable narrative.

“At the moment the issue is so toxic and beginning to get out of the Government’s grip to the point it is very hard to bring it back. A further package of actions is absolutely vital to start controlling both the public narrative and the delivery.”