UK To Introduce Law To Override ECHR After Blocked Deportations

The United Kingdom government has said it will introduce legislation allowing it to ignore certain European Court of Human Rights decisions after a judge in Strasbourg blocked flights removing asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab will bring the new Bill of Rights to parliament on Wednesday as the government attempts to implement its Rwanda plan, aimed at deterring immigrants from making illegal crossings of the English Channel.

Rights groups and church leaders have criticised the policy as “shameful”.

British courts earlier this month gave the go-ahead for the first removal flight to leave, but the ECHR stepped in at the last minute with an interim ruling to block its departure.

A UK full judicial review of the plan’s legality is due next month.