The Tory peer argued migrant Channel crossings were “an acute problem” that needed addressing, and said the Illegal Migration Bill was 'part of the solution'. However, Tory former chancellor Norman Lamont has warned against cramming legislation aimed at tackling the small boats crisis with so many “loopholes, exemptions and get-out-clauses” that it becomes unworkable. We should not flatter totalitarians by imitating their addictions.' 'Surely breaking the law should be the last resort. The independent crossbench peer said: 'To reform the law, they want to break the law, surely a most extraordinary proposition, particularly to the revising chamber. Referring to Home Secretary Suella Braverman's comment that she is unable to say whether the Bill is compatible with the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), he said that the government 'should not get away with' breaching its international obligations. 'It victimises the vulnerable, and if we enact it, the country breaks its commitments and trashes its traditions.'Īnd top KC Lord Carlile of Berriew accused the government of 'deliberately breaking the law'. He warned the Bill would 'disarm our diplomacy' by making it difficult to 'remonstrate with rule breakers', and said: 'In almost 20 years here, I don’t think I can recall a more disreputable Bill than this one.

'How utterly ashamed I believe Churchill would be today at this Bill,' he added.Ĭrossbencher and former ambassador Lord Kerr of Kinlochard said: 'We’re being asked to agree to a blatant repudiation of our commitments under the.

He said it would be 'more suited to a party of extremists than the party that saw one of its greatest leaders, Winston Churchill, amongst the architects of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights.' The House of Lords has spent the afternoon discussing the government's controversial Illegal Migration Bill, and many peers lined up to condemn it.įormer EastEnders actor and MEP Lord Cashman described the Bill as a 'thoroughly reprehensible piece of legislation'.

Tangled by Emma Chase