Suella Braverman has hit out at a key British human rights law, claiming she was surprised it was not called the “Criminal Rights Act”.
Ms Braverman drew migration battle lines between the Conservatives and Labour ahead of the next general election in her speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.
She suggested the Human Rights Act, introduced under the last Labour government, was among a series of laws and regulations which had “enmeshed” the Government’s effort to tackle the small boats crisis in the English Channel.
Home Office figures have confirmed that more than 25,000 people have been detected crossing the Channel in small boats this year.
The Prime Minister has made tackling the crossings one of the five priorities of his leadership, with Ms Braverman warning against “luxury beliefs” in open borders, and that Britain under a Labour government would “go properly woke”.
Ms Braverman also faced heckles during her speech from Conservative London Assembly member Andrew Boff, who took umbrage with her allusion to the “poison” of “gender ideology”.
Addressing the main stage at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Ms Braverman said the future “could bring millions more migrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable, unless the government they elect next year acts decisively to stop that happening”.
Talking about “illegal immigration”, she said: “Our country has become enmeshed in a dense net of international rules that were designed for another era. And it is Labour that turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act.
“I’m surprised they didn’t call it the ‘Criminal Rights Act’.”
Returning to the theme of human rights later in her speech, the Home Secretary confirmed she would bring forward a new law, aimed at preventing registered sex offenders from “changing their identities”.
She said: “Let me tell you something. I don’t care if anyone thinks this is interfering with their human rights. It’s time to worry less about the rights of sexual predators and more about the rights of victims.”
Ms Braverman said the Tories stand with the “many” against the “privileged woke minority”.
“We stand with the many, the law-abiding, hard-working common-sense majority, against the few, the privileged woke minority with their luxury beliefs who wield influence out of proportion to their numbers,” she said.
Warning about how under Labour “Britain would go properly woke”, she said: “Things are bad enough already, we see it in parts of Whitehall, in museums, in galleries, in the police and even in leading companies in the City, under the banner of diversity, equity and inclusion, official policies have been embedded that distort the whole purpose of these institutions.
“Highly controversial ideas are presented to the workforce and to the public as if they’re motherhood and apple pie: gender ideology, white privilege, anti-British history. And the evidence demonstrates that if you don’t challenge this poison, things just get worse.”
Looking ahead to the next general election, she said: “The British people will get to decide if they want to curb woke with Rishi Sunak or let it run riot with Keir take-the-knee Starmer.”
Elsewhere in her speech, Ms Braverman took aim at what she called “highly controversial ideas” which she said were being “presented to workforces and the public as if they are motherhood and apple pie”.
She added: “Gender ideology. White privilege. Anti-British history. The evidence demonstrates that if you don’t challenge this poison, things just get worse.”
At this point, Mr Boff, a “proud member” of the Conservative Party, who was sat near the front of the hall, could be heard to shout out.
He was then hauled out of the conference centre, and told members of the press Ms Braverman’s speech was “making our Conservative Party look transphobic and homophobic”.
“Our party has a proud record of standing up for LGBT+ rights and she is destroying it,” he added.
Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick suggested Boris Johnson’s administration had not been tough enough on reducing legal migration to the UK.
“I feel that, and I think Suella would agree, that there were wrong choices taken when we left the European Union… By Boris Johnson and his administration,” he told LBC.
“And that has led to far too many people coming into the country – and that we now need to correct those.”
Following Ms Braverman’s speech, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said that politicians needed to be careful about how immigration policies are discussed.
Speaking at an event hosted by The Spectator, she said: “We live in a multiracial society.
“We’re very, very comfortable with that because if we weren’t you wouldn’t have a Prime Minister that we have, we wouldn’t have the Home Secretary or the Business Secretary that we have.
“But we have to be very careful about how we explain and express immigration policies, so that people aren’t getting echoes of things that were less palatable.”
