The UK is going to be robust in dealing with small boat crossings and the immigration system, but “in a British way,” Attorney General Lord Hermer said on Sept. 10.
Hermer was addressing the Lords Constitution Committee on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and dealing with immigration and asylum cases in the UK.
He said the government “will leave no stone unturned” and on tackling Channel crossings, added: “Nothing sensible or practical or effective will be off the table.”
The government’s top legal adviser told peers that the use of Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to private and family life, must be looked at in how it is applied in UK courts, as part of a Home Office review.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on Sept. 8 that the government would look to bring forward proposals to change domestic legislation and guidance on how the ECHR is implemented in the UK, saying the balance between human rights and secure borders “isn’t in the right place at the moment.”
Lord Hermer told the committee that Strasbourg case law is very “permissive” and allows states an “enormous margin of appreciation” on what they can do in the asylum and immigration space.
“It has developed particularly over the last five or six years, and I am concerned to ensure that domestically, we have kept pace with that,” Hermer said. “Some of our colleagues on the Council of Europe have, I think, more effective, more robust mechanisms that are compliant with Article 8 that we need to look at. We are kicking the tyres hard at every level.”
He said this included looking at case worker guidance, immigration rules, primary legislation, and the Government is adopting a “very proactive litigation strategy.”
Hermer said there should be “no tension” between taking “tough and necessary measures” dealing with immigration, asylum, and small boat crossings, and emphasising the country has an “extraordinarily diverse multicultural society.”
“I think it behoves us all in our language to be very clear about that, because we have seen in recent weeks some of the dangers when we are not… of our minority communities feeling fear and under threat,” he said.
“That’s not this country. This country is one that embraces our extraordinary success story of diversity and multiculturalism, and it behoves us all to make plain we’re going to be robust to deal with the problem, but we’re doing it in a British way.”
