Robert Jenrick warns Tories 'have no future' without quitting the ECHR

Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick today warned there 'isnt' a future' for the party unless they campaign to quit the European Convention on Human Rights.

The former immigration minister used a morning campaign rally on the fringes of the Conservative conference in Birmingham to issue a 'leave or die' message.

He channelled ex-prime minister Boris Johnson's famous 'Get Brexit Done' slogan to call on the party to 'get migration done'.

Mr Jenrick said continued membership of the ECHR was making it 'impossible for us to finish the job we began with Brexit, which is to restore sovereignty to our people and our Parliament'.

He dismissed concerns about the impact of quitting the ECHR on the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, saying a new British bill of rights could provide a 'pragmatic answer'.

And he also reiterated his call for a 'democratic cap' on the level of legal migration to the UK to bring it down to the tens of thousands per year.

In his speech to supporters, some of who donned caps bearing the message 'we want Bobby J', Mr Jenrick spoke without notes as he continued his campaign to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader.

He said that membership of the ECHR was an 'existential' issue for the Tories and 'critical to the future of our country'.

The former Cabinet minister outlined how membership of the ECHR was 'making it impossible for us to deport terrorists... to remove dangerous foreign criminals like rapists, murderers and paedophiles', and 'making it impossible to secure our borders'.

He claimed ex-PM Winston Churchill, a driving force behind the ECHR in the wake of the Second World War, would 'turn in his grave if he saw what had happened to this document today'.

In a social media video released earlier this morning, Mr Jenrick listed a series of foreign criminals he claimed Britain was unable to deport due to the ECHR.

These included a Somalian who aided a plot to blow up the London Underground, a Nigerian who raped a 13-year-old girl, an Algerian who recruited for ISIS, and a Ugandan who beat a man to death in the back of the ambulance.

Speaking at his campaign rally, Mr Jenrick said it was a 'fantasy' to believe the ECHR could be reformed as it needed unanimous agreement from all 46 member states.

'It's leave or remain,' he added. 'Remain means subject our people and our country to dangerous criminals on our streets, to terrorists on our streets, to a court creeping into every aspect of our lives without any democratic accountability.

'And it means that we never secure our borders. Leave means end this farce once and for all. I'm for leave.

'For our party, this is more than just leave or remain. Frankly, our party doesn't have a future unless we take a stand and fix this problem. It's leave or die for our party.'

Mr Jenrick said he wants to 'get migration done' so that politicians can talk about other issues, such as the NHS, the economy, the environment, and education.

Speaking to reporters after his speech, the Tory leadership contender repeated his warning that the ECHR represented an existiential issue for the party. 

'A party of the centre-right has to have an answer to these issues and if we don't take a stand on fixing illegal migration, restoring sovereignty to our people and our Parliament, there isn't a future for the Conservative Party,' he said.

Mr Jenrick also denied that campaigning to leave the ECHR would split the party, adding: 'There's a consensus now in the Conservative Party that the ECHR is not working in the interests of the British people.

'That is why almost everyone in the party believes we should, at the bare minimum, reform the ECHR. My argument is that is not possible.

'I have a plan, I have given this a great deal of thought, I've spoken to our counterparts throughout Europe and reform isn't possible, it's a fantasy. So we will have to leave.'

Asked how he would measure his ambition to 'get migration done', Mr Jenrick replied: 'There are two central things we need to do; firstly, have a democratic cap on legal migration, set by Parliament, in the tens of thousands or fewer.

'By having a democratic cap, the public will know that we will actually do it this time and we will bring the numbers down to the historic norms that we knew as a country prior to 1997.

'And by leaving the ECHR, we will finally be able to secure our borders and implement the stronger version of the Rwanda policy that I advocated at the turn of the year where somebody is detained and then deported within days. That is the only way we can resolve this issue.' 

Mr Jenrick said leaving the ECHR should be achieved without a referendum.