UK Home Secretary Theresa May has called on the British government to stay in the European Union (EU) and instead leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
In a speech in central London on Monday, the top UK official said leaving the EU would not improve the human rights situation in the country and it is the Strasbourg-based ECHR that Britain needs to quit, which is separate from the EU.
“The ECHR can bind the hands of parliament, adds nothing to our prosperity, makes us less secure by preventing the deportation of dangerous foreign nationals and does nothing to change the attitudes of governments like Russia’s when it comes to human rights,” she said.
“If we want to reform human rights laws in this country, it isn’t the EU we should leave but the ECHR and the jurisdiction of its court,” she said while advocating “a true British bill of rights.”
Meanwhile, Charles Falconer, the shadow justice secretary, said he was appalled by the home secretary’s comments which he described as “so ignorant, so illiberal, so misguided.”
In her speech, May added that the UK had to "stand tall and lead in Europe" and drop the bid to exit the 28-member bloc as that membership made the UK "more secure from crime and terrorism."
British citizens will head to the polls on June 23 to decide on their country’s future in the European Union.
No to Turkey’s membership in EU
Elsewhere in here remarks, May urged Britain to stop backing Turkey’s accession to the EU, saying that it was not wise to have land borders with conflict-ridden countries such as Syria and Iraq.
“Having agreed the end of the European principle of ‘ever-closer union’, it is time to question the principle of ever-wider expansion,” she noted.
Her comments were in stark contrast to Cameron’s backing of Ankara’s membership.
