SOONER or later Sir Keir Starmer will have to decide whose side he is on.
Whether to stick with his lawyer chums working in the £60million human rights industry — or address growing public disquiet over illegal migration.
Sir Keir Starmer is a slave to human rights law and must free himself
Crown CopyrightSooner or later the PM will have to decide whose side he is on[/caption]
In the last few days, it has become increasingly clear the courts are the roadblock to ending the asylum madness gripping Britain.
Judges stoked public anger on Friday by overturning an injunction ordering the removal of 138 migrants from the Bell Hotel at Epping, Essex.
For thousands of concerned families living in affected communities it was the final straw and confirmed what they have long suspected: that the rights of asylum seekers trump the interests of local people.
As MPs return from their summer break today, the Prime Minister knows he must find a solution to the problem quickly or he is toast.
It has dominated his thoughts during his family holiday in Scotland, and he has told ministers it is now his “mission” to find a solution.
Hollow victory
So far, his plan to “smash the gangs” has failed, with 50,000 migrants arriving illegally on small boats since he took office, and 32,000 housed in hotels, at a cost to taxpayers of £5.7million a day.
The “one-in, one-out” migrant swap deal with France, or the £500million we’ve handed over to fund beach patrols across the Channel haven’t stopped the boats, either. So, what next?
Sir Keir’s two biggest political rivals, the Tories and Reform, have both vowed to tackle the root of the migrant crisis by quitting the flawed and outdated European Convention on Human Rights.
There is also a growing feeling in Labour circles that this is the only answer.
But Sir Keir, a former director of public prosecutions, is a slave to the “rule of law” and the human rights doctrine on which he built his career.
Could he now bring himself to ditch his long-held values?
Allies say he still insists that leaving the ECHR would not solve the problem.
But the events of the past week have piled pressure on him to do something, and fast.
Last week’s appeal was a hollow victory for the PM, with furious campaigners accusing him of using the courts — and a law in dire need of reform — against the British people.
The ECHR was drawn up 70 years ago to ensure the Nazi atrocities of the Second World War would never be repeated.
But its creators did not envisage criminal networks exploiting it or ludicrous interpretations by lawyers.
Human rights law has been used by illegal migrants and foreign criminals to avoid deportation, because in part their children don’t like chicken nuggets in their homeland, or the weather is too hot for their partner.
In one case, an immigration appeals judge ruled against removing an Albanian burglar with almost 50 convictions, saying his crimes were not very extreme.
And taxpayers are footing the bill for this lunacy.
Last year they were stung for £47million in legal aid fees for asylum and immigration cases and this will rise 30 per cent this year to £61million.
A former tribunal judge summed it up when he told me: “Human rights laws have been so badly drafted they have become a licence to print money for lawyers.”
Sir Keir now risks being isolated, not only by his two biggest political opponents, but by a section of his own party.
Senior figures on the centre-Left admit Reform chief Nigel Farage has a point, and withdrawal is the only answer.
Two former Labour home secretaries, Jack Straw, who helped construct the 1998 Human Rights Act, and David Blunkett now believe we should “decouple” or temporarily suspend our membership of the ECHR.
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden wants compulsory ID cards to stop migrants working illegally or gaining access to services.
Up to 40 MPs in “Red Wall” Labour strongholds are warming to the idea.
Call for action
But perhaps the biggest sign of the shifting opinion is Rylan Clark’s call for action.
The TV presenter, who last month praised migrant doctors and nurses for saving his mother’s life in hospital, says “something major needs to be done” about the number of undocumented young men illegally entering the UK on small boats.
Handwringing, middle-class lefties may scream “racist” or “bigot” at Farage when he promises drastic action.
But it’s harder to land a blow on a working-class Essex lad like Rylan, whose warmth and charisma have won him an army of fans.
Will the Prime Minister have the balls to make yet another U-turn and think the unthinkable?
Or is he working on a secret plan to end the madness?
He knows this political sore will continue to fester until he shows the courage or ingenuity to lance it.
But time is not on his side.
STUNT-loving Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey is boycotting this month’s State banquet for Donald Trump at Windsor.
Did someone tell him it was being held in a real castle and not a bouncy one?
ANGELA RAYNER’S arrival in politics brought a much-needed breath of fresh air to the stuffy corridors of Westminster.
Proud of her working-class roots, she speaks her mind and has first-hand experience of poverty.
PAAngela Ratner appears to have avoided an increased surcharge on second homes imposed by her colleague, Chancellor Rachel Reeves[/caption]
The outspoken Deputy Prime Minister is never afraid to tell it as it is.
That is, unless it’s about her own grand living arrangements.
“Our Ange” has been uncharacteristically quiet about how she saved £40,000 stamp duty on her new seaside flat.
It appears she removed her name from the deeds of her constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester, to avoid an increased surcharge on second homes imposed by her colleague, Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
She should clear this one up, along with how much council tax she pays on each of her three pads.
Otherwise, the words she once fired at Tories will come back to haunt her.
There’s one rule for you and another for the rest of us.
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