Suella Braverman
Well, I was supposed to sit down at the back of the venue with the former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman to have a chat with her, but of course we left because we feared the police might storm the place at any moment and the last thing either of us wanted to get involved in were fisty cuffs of any kind.
So, we went away to a hotel while I asked her a series of questions. Her speech was very deeply critical of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and in particular the recent ruling appropo Switzerland that says that any country that is signed up to the ECHR has to adopt Net Zero policies.
I went on to ask her whether Rishi Sunak had the courage to do anything about it and I finished up by asking her effectively had Brexit voters being betrayed by the massive immigration numbers.
Escaped from Clarage at some point this afternoon, the police will close it down, I escaped but also, I’m very pleased to say that safely escaped is the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman. We’re here Suella because we were supposed to have a sit down in the venue, but kind of they wanted to close the conference what do you make of it?
It’s pretty astonishing Nigel isn’t it, thankfully you and I got to make our speeches in favour of controlling our borders and protecting our communities amongst like-minded Democrats.
Many of us there are democratically elected politicians, many of us are leaders in our field, academics, thinkers, writers and it’s frankly staggering that the mayor of Brussels has deployed his thought police to cancel what is a peaceful event focused on how we can better represent the millions of people around the European continent.
Leave the ECHR
I felt this morning if ever I doubted for a minute not that I did really but what Brexit was about, the fact this conference was questioning ever closer union within the European Union and since the judgment the Swiss judgment recently, the role of the ECHR didn’t that really tell us we’re on the right track?
Well, there’s obviously that I mean the hypocrisy is also astonishing, only last year the mayor of Brussels hosted the mayor of Tehran here in Brussels, so he’s okay to have the mayor of an autocratic regime in his city but those of us who want to talk about rights, radicalism as I spoke about today or standing up for sovereignty and democracy are you know, they attempt to cancel, you Suella Braverman and me too!
I remember the word of Mrs Thatcher I’m going to misquote her now but she said she always got cheered up when she saw her opponents take ever more ridiculous and extremist and far-fetched attempts to shut her down because it just shows they’ve lost the political argument. I’m used to it, I mean I was barred here from restaurants, barred from coffee shops, pubs but that was a private thing.
I mean this was the global media were there seeing and very respectable as you say, group of people, I mean European royalty, prime minister to coming tomorrow of Hungary, it is truly extraordinary are we sort of in danger of slipping back to sort of communism, fascism and how would you characterize it?
Well, I think it’s incredibly concerning that we seeing here, an attempt to snuff out and stamp out freedom of speech you and I are conservative politicians, centre right politicians who voted to leave the European Union through a democratic and legitimate process and here we are trying to explore those ideas, me talking about rights, radicalism and the overreach by the Strasburg court and the totally unreasonable way in which human rights have taken over and stymied.
Stop the Boats
The government’s ability to stop the boats, the reason why we’ve not managed to stop the boats in the UK is because the Strasburg court intervened at the 11th hour through an opaque process without reasons to stop us sending flights to Rwanda. That’s what I was talking about here, speaking on behalf of the British people on behalf of my constituents who have sent me to Parliament to stop the boots and talking about that surely cannot be a criminal activity and of course by implication from a Swiss ruling now as members of ECHR we have to pursue Net Zero policies.
You’re absolutely right, it was an egregious decision that we saw a few weeks ago from the Strasburg court against the Swiss government on climate change. The Strasburg Court has totally overreached and usurped the legitimate authority of democratically elected governments the Swiss people themselves voted in a referendum against so-called climate change Net Zero policies and yet the Strasburg court overruled that Democratic instruction and imposed its own rule on the Swiss government, which really does symbolize a kind of Net Zero Madness
But that’s symbolic and symptomatic of the broader problem that’s why I was calling today in my speech that we need to leave the European Convention of Human Rights and we need to do it now. It’s no good putting it in a Manifesto for the Conservative party at the next general election, it’s no good putting off the debate, we’ve had four years talking about the boats, talking about illegal migration, we’re now on our third Act of parliament this week, voting on our third Act of parliament we’ve not succeeded in stopping the votes.
Leave the European Convention on Human Rights
The British people are fed up with 30,000 people last year crossing the channel, £6 million pound a day being spent on the hotels. I tried and when I was home secretary to fix this, unfortunately I was blocked by the Prime Minister, but I’ve come to the view and I was calling for it since 2022 that we now need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights we need to do it now, but it’s not going to happen is it?
Well, listen I will keep calling for it and if the prime minister is serious about stopping the boats he said he would do whatever it takes if he really means that he will do whatever it takes that means invoking or triggering article 58 of the European Convention on Human Rights, sending a letter which is six months, isn’t it six-month notice to the Council of Europe possibly passing an act of parliament because we might need to do that to confirm the departure from the Convention.
Actually, delivering for the British people because it’s human rights laws it’s the Strasburg judges and it’s this distorted approach to civil liberties that has stopped us from delivering from the British people and it’s not just the boats but it’s on stopping terrorists from being in the country, it’s about deporting foreign paedophiles and drug dealers, Abu Katada took 10 years to remove from the country because of ECHR so I completely get where you’re at. If Rishi Sunak and the next Manifesto says we will continue to pursue our policies but if the ECHR defy us we’ll consider leaving, should we believe him?
Sunak will Never Leave the ECHR
Suella Braverman: Listen Nigel, I worked very closely with the Prime Minister on this issue for over a year and you know his view as expressed to me was that he does not support leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and you know we’re hearing a lot of noises from him right now. I do believe the British people would see them as inauthentic, I think. If he’s really serious about stopping the boats he’ll do what is necessary and what’s necessary is invoking article 58 now and he has a parliamentary majority so he could do it.
He could do it, I believe he could do it and he could deliver withdrawal from the Convention before the next election. Let’s fight the next election on it. Let’s Force Keir Starmers hand because I tell you it would be great to see the Labour party campaign to hand back control to Strasburg, hand back you know control over our borders to a foreign Court. Let’s have that debate, let’s have that debate with the with the British public.
The Prime Minister has the authority, he has a majority I believe to deliver what’s necessary to actually stop. I will watch this space but not hold my breath is it a betrayal. Listen I think that it’s very disappointing, I myself have battled very hard within government to lower migration and what I’ve come up against is institutional resistance whether it’s from the OBR which as I said takes a view. You’re sounding like Liz Truss!
The OBR Opposes Border Control
The OBR takes a view which is very opposed to lower migration so how does the next election look as a sitting Conservative Member of Parliament is it going to be a bad night or a total catastrophe? Listen Nigel, I’ve been very open about my profound concerns about the way the party is heading and I’ve been very clear that the Prime Minister needs to change course. Any poll that you look at every day now suggests that we’re heading for electoral defeat and I am horrified personally by the prospect of a Keir Starmer government.
He’s someone who would reverse Brexit, he’s someone who campaigned for a second referendum.
Suella Braverman, are you saying constitutionally he’d reverse Brexit by rejoining the EU?
Listen, I would not rule it out because he’s someone who campaigned for a second referendum and all the indications from his shadow cabinet and indeed himself in his unguarded moments is that he does want closer alignment with the European Union.
He would undo what was achieved in 2016 in that historic vote, he would oversee increased migration and he would not apologize or try to hide it.
Well, I must say that was a very spirited Suella Braverman, it really was.