David Cameron might have had an enjoyable session teasing Labour at Prime Minister’s Questions, but as soon as he’d finished doing so in his head-to-head with Harriet Harman, he was reminded that winning an election with a majority that is so small means he can’t have fun all the time. Andrew Mitchell stood up to press the Prime Minister on human rights reform, expressing concern about any moves to leave the European Convention on human rights:
‘My right hon. Friend will be well aware that there is considerable concern on both sides of the House at the proposition that Britain might withdraw from the European convention on human rights. Will he take the opportunity today to make it clear that he has no plans for us to do so?’
Cameron replied:
‘We are very clear about what we want: British judges making decisions in British courts, and the British Parliament being accountable to the British people. The plans that were set out in our manifesto do not involve us leaving the European convention on human rights, but let us be absolutely clear about our position if we cannot achieve what we need—I am very clear about that. When we have these foreign criminals committing offence after offence, and we cannot send them home because of their “right to a family life”, that needs to change. I rule out absolutely nothing in getting that done.’
I understand that Mitchell appeared on the list of ‘sincere’ rebels drawn up by the whips when they were calculating whether they could get a bill through the Commons. The two other groups were ‘eurofanatics’ such as Ken Clarke and ‘opportunists’, which apparently included David Davis (rather unfair given Davis’ stance on issues of law and liberty, even if a whiff of trouble has the same effect on him as caffeine). They therefore concluded that they were not ready to ask other parties such as the DUP for their support because there was no way they could win even with the additional eight votes from across the Chamber.
The challenge for the Tories now is to convince rebels in all of those groups – particularly the first and third – of the merits of the legislation they end up bringing before Parliament in order to reduce the numbers of rebels significantly. And then they need to convince the DUP of the merits of the legislation too: a DUP source says the party will support UK-wide human rights reform, not just a partial change that applies to England and Wales only.
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