We democratically elect Parliament. So it is for Parliament, not an individual judge acting on a whim, to decide who is eligible to come to the UK.
In defiance of this principle, a judge recently granted a UK resident the right to bring six relatives to the UK from Gaza – despite having had no face to face contact with them for 17 years.
The judge used a new interpretation of ECHR Article 8 to do this. Article 8 confers the right to a “family and private life”. It was written after the Second World War to stop families being torn apart by genocidal regimes.
But what does it mean today? It means whatever any judge says it means.
We saw a recent Article 8 judgement where a sick foreign paedophile was allowed to stay in the UK – because of his ECHR family rights.
And now this case lets Gazans into the UK against current immigration rules. Even Egypt and Jordan aren’t letting Gazans in.
It sets a dangerous precedent. Anyone in any conflict zone in the world with a relative in the UK now has the right to claim to come here – at huge cost to the taxpayer.
The UK just cannot be expected to take in millions of people.
But the judge did not consider this in their ruling.
At the stroke of a pen, they created a new migration scheme. All thanks to another inventive interpretation of the ECHR.
The UK has already established schemes for those in danger in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong. In the past we have done the same for Syria.
Why should unelected judges suddenly make up a new immigration policy?
This absurd ruling proves the need for radical reform of human rights laws, which are now so routinely abused, they have become farcical.
I was shocked in PMQs today to hear that Keir Starmer refused to commit to appeal against this judgement.
At heart, Keir Starner is a weak human rights lawyer more interested in doing what his chum Lord Hermer tells him than standing up for the national interest.
Starmer needs to develop some backbone and appeal against this decision.
But more fundamentally, we need to radically overhaul human rights laws so that rogue judges can’t make up a whole new immigration policy through ever expanding interpretations of vague ECHR articles.
We elect Parliament. We must let them act for the people.
