Tory Right urge Rishi Sunak to put quitting the ECHR at the heart of the next election if the Rwanda scheme is blocked

• Right-wing MPs including New Conservatives abstained in last week’s vote 

Right-wing Tories have urged Rishi Sunak to fight the next general election on leaving an international human rights agreement if the Rwanda plan is blocked.

Danny Kruger, co-chairman of the New Conservatives group, said the party would not win the election without committing to quitting the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Together with other Right-wing MPs, he abstained in last week’s crunch vote on Mr Sunak’s Rwanda plan, saying the draft legislation was ‘unsatisfactory’.

Mr Kruger told the Inside Whitehall podcast: ‘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 election without this [leaving the ECHR] as well.’ 

A host of Conservative MPs have long called for Britain to leave the ECHR. The convention established the European Court of Human Rights, which stopped flights carrying asylum seekers from taking off to Rwanda last year.

Co-chairman of New Conservatives Danny Kruger (pictured, left) said that the Tories would not win the next election without pledging to leave the ECHR

New Conservatives MPs leaving Downing Street last Tuesday after meeting Rishi Sunak over breakfast to discuss Rwanda legislation

Miriam Cates, his fellow co-chairman, said there was a ‘difference in view’ among the party over the role of the ECHR, adding: ‘There is this battle for the soul of the party and I think what’s been going on over the past few days over the Rwanda Bill has laid that bare.

‘That there is this… difference in view which is: should international law trump British law, or should British law trump international law?

‘That kind of characterises the split within the party and obviously we very much believe in British sovereignty and taking back control.’

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