Brexit news: Bill Cash warns UK must leave ECHR now or migrant crisis will NEVER end - 'This can't continue!'

Sir Bill Cash has issued a stark warning that the United Kingdom must leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if immigrants are to be prevented from entering Britain illegally or for financial gain.

The long-serving Conservative MP and Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee condemned the record illegal immigration and small boat crossings that have taken place in the past 12 months.

He told GB News: “There are substantial grounds for leaving the ECHR because it is weaponised by the courts.

“The problem is that the ECHR has been distorted by judicial ‘political’ interference, this contributed to the injunction being put in place to stop the Rwanda plane from leaving British soil.”

Mr Cash added: “This must not continue – proper UK sovereign legislation is required to prevent this from happening.”

Brexit latest: The European Court of Human Rights has blocked the UK from deporting asylum seekers

All 47 Council of Europe member states - including the UK and the 27 EU countries - are parties to the European Convention on Human Rights, which has been in force in this country since 1951.

It is overseen by the European Court of Human Rights which was set up in 1959 to rule on individual member states violating the "civil and political rights" set out in the ECHR. Its judgments are binding.

Many people believe the UK left the ECHR when the country quit the EU on January 31 2020, but it remains a full member - which is why the court was able to intervene and prevent the British Government from deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.

The Tory grandee added: “I have argued – with the support of a huge number of Conservative MPs – during the Borders Bill to use the 'notwithstanding' formula to override the obstruction by the Human Rights Act, the ECHR, and the Refugee Convention and to use our sovereignty to stop illegal and economic immigrants seeking asylum in Britain.”

Mr Cash, himself a lawyer, acknowledged that far more needed to be done in order for the full promises of Brexit, including border control and the restoration of sovereignty, to be delivered.

He told GB News: “We need a new bill to ensure that these objectives are enacted and that the incentive for immigrants to come over is removed, and to protect people from trafficking and loss of life at sea.

Bill Cash has demanded that Britain leave the ECHR and implement 'sovereign' legislation

He added: “It is unbelievable that a simple request for asylum confers so much judicial protection, and the processing of illegal immigrants must be much more rigorous and straightforward.”

GB News presenter Nigel Farage has also long demanded that the UK leaves the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, but especially in the wake of the Rwanda decision.

The former MEP and UKIP leader said: “Left-wing lawyers now dictate our immigration policy. Time to leave the ECHR and finally complete Brexit.”

More than 45,000 people have illegally crossed the channel in 2022, the highest number since records began. That compares to 28,526 people who made the journey in the whole of last year.