Home Secretary Theresa May has said she wants to introduce a law that will require foreigners found guilty of serious crimes to be deported, as judges are ignoring current rules in such cases.
MPs approved new guidance for judges last year that made it clear that a criminal’s right to a family life had limits, but Mrs May said yesterday (February 17th) that some judges are ignoring the guidance and are choosing to “ignore Parliament’s wishes”.
The guidance was designed to put a stop to the practice of allowing foreign criminals to remain in the UK because otherwise their right to a family life would be breached under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
According to Mrs May, allowing these criminals to stay makes the UK a more dangerous place and she has criticised the judges who have “got it into their heads that the ECHR Article Eight ‘right to family life’ could not be curbed”.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Mrs May said that she is determined to bring forward a new law making it clear the deportation should be the norm in everything but “extraordinary circumstances”.
However, she warned that the delay in getting it onto the statute book would inevitably mean “more victims of violent crimes committed by foreigners in this country”.
Having said that, she agreed that respect for human rights is an essential part of “any decent legal system”, but stressed that the matter was all about balance; the individual has a right to be free from violent crime as much as the criminal has a right to family life.
While accepting the need for the power of Government ministers to be “reviewed and restrained” by the judiciary, Mrs May stressed that UK laws are “made by the elected representatives of the people in Parliament” and added that democracy is subverted when judges decide to take on that role for themselves”.