UK ministers accused of weakening legal protections for torture victims seeking asylum

Keir Starmer’s government has been accused of trying to water down legal protections for torture victims as ministers from 46 countries including the UK prepare to make it easier to deport refused asylum seekers and foreign criminals. Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, is expected to agree a “political declaration” on Friday with other members of the Council of Europe, which oversees the European convention on human rights (ECHR). The declaration is supposed to curb the way the convention is interpreted by European and domestic courts to halt the removal and deportation of asylum claimants. It follows claims from Cooper and the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, that articles 3 and 8 of the convention – the right to live free from torture and the right to family life – have been misused by criminals. Reacting to the planned declaration, legal experts and human rights organisations said the move was a “grubbily political deal” that risked playing into the hands of repressive governments. Prof Eirik Bjorge KC, the author of Courts as Faithful Trustees: Domestic Application of the ECHR, said the declaration sought to interfere with the independence of the judiciary but would be rejected by judges. “There is nothing principled about the Chisinau manifesto; it is a grubbily political initiative. …