A leading backbench Conservative MP has suggested his party will never “get back into power” unless it makes a commitment to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.
Danny Kruger, who co-chairs the New Conservatives with Miriam Cates, was speaking to the Inside Whitehall podcast — which is hosted by fellow Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis and former government adviser James Starkie.
Kruger said: “I don’t think we will ever get back into power, if we go out of power. And frankly, I think we’re going to struggle at the next without this as well.
“So I think the next election we win will be one in which we’re standing to leave the ECHR.”
Kruger, as the New Conservatives’ co-chair, was one of the 29 Conservative MPs to abstain on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill at its second reading in the House of Commons last week.
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Speaking in the debate, Kruger said: “I recognise the progress that the government have made to improve capacity but … we have significant concerns about the system getting gummed up with legal claims that are still allowable under the Bill.
“We are also concerned about the potential continued operation of rule 39 orders from the Strasbourg Court”.
He added: “I regret that we have an unsatisfactory Bill before us. I cannot undertake to support it tonight. I hope that the government will agree to pull the Bill and allow us to work with them and colleagues across the House to produce a better Bill; one that respects parliamentary sovereignty and satisfies the legitimate concerns of colleagues about vulnerable individuals.
“For instance, we can do better on safe and legal routes. We should be working together with other countries to design a system that respects the sovereignty of Parliament and the legitimate rule of independent nations”.
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The government’s Rwanda bill will return to parliament in the New Year for its final commons stages, when critical MPs like Kruger and his colleagues in the so-called “five families” are expected to propose amendments.
It comes as Conservative moderates in the One Nation grouping of MPs state their intention to fight back against any further radicalisation of the bill, including in its approach to the ECHR.
A new grouping, backed by the Bright Blue think tank, and called the Bright Blue Community, has been set up ahead of the showdown over the bill in January.
According to a report in The Times newspaper, the grouping is supported by more than 20 MPs, among whom nearly half are former ministers.
It also comes as Sir Robert Buckland, a former cabinet minister and member of the One Nation group, considers tabling an amendment of his own in January to ensure that the proposed Rwanda legislation is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
“It could get support from across the House, unlike amendments that may be tabled by the right”, Buckland told The Guardian.
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