UK Set To Overrule Euro Court On Immigration

UK judges will soon have the final say when ruling on immigration cases, according to the Justice Secretary.

The major legal reform would stop the European Court of Human Rights overruling the decision of British judges.

Ken Clarke has disclosed an agreement is expected to be reached that would prevent individuals being able to repeatedly challenge deportation rulings, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The deal is set to be agreed at a conference in London next April.

Mr Clark said it would end the situation where "everybody who's just lost his arguments about deportation should be able to go there and get in the queue, wait a few years to get it all reheard again when he's lost the argument three times already" in the UK.

In an interview with the Telegraph Mr Clarke added: "What we are trying to do is get the role of the court sorted out so that it deals with serious human rights issues of the kind that require an international court.

"We want the court back to its proper business as an international court which takes up serious issues of principle when a member state or its courts, or its parliament, are arguably in serious breach of the (European Human Rights) convention."

Britain took over chairmanship of the Council of Europe, which oversees the court, at the beginning of November and will be in charge for six months.

"To get any decision out of any international body usually takes at least 20 years," Mr Clarke told the newspaper.

"You would take the first two years trying to agree to where to put the commas in the memorandum. (But) it's not like that.

"A lot of member states have been pushing for similar things, and a lot of them believe a British chairmanship is the best time to deliver it, and they think we're the best hope of drawing this to a conclusion."

Mr Clarke added: "The term human rights, it gets misused. There is a tendency in this country for the words human rights to get thrown about as much as health and safety. Both of them get hopelessly misused.

"When some official, some policeman, whoever, has made some mistake in taking some absurd decision, the first thing they do to fend off criticism is to blame it on health and safety and blame it on human rights.

The truth is that someone's made a pig's ear in the office."