Misinformation and myth: the UK's phoney war over human rights

The debate over the future of the European Convention on Human Rights will shape conference season and beyond, writes political editor Rachel Sylvester

- Rachel Sylvester

It is known in Whitehall as the “chicken nugget debacle”. An Albanian criminal had supposedly avoided deportation because his son disliked foreign chicken nuggets.

Kemi Badenoch cited the widely reported case as an example of how the European convention on human rights (ECHR) “is weaponised by those who wish to erode our national identity and border security”. Nigel Farage said: “You read this stuff and you just want to cry.”

Except it never happened. There was no ruling that the foreign offender should be allowed to stay in Britain because his child was a picky eater. An immigration tribunal did initially decide that it would be “unduly harsh” for the boy to be sent to Albania because of his special educational needs, but this judgment was later overturned. A more senior judge rejected the man’s appeal and made absolutely clear that an aversion to chicken nuggets should never be enough to prevent deportation.

This was not an isolated case. There was the Iranian criminal “spared deportation so he can cut his son’s hair”, the mass murderer who claimed that having access to hardcore porn was his human right and the Afghan migrant who could not be extradited to Belgium “because of mosquitoes” in the prison.

The debate around human rights law is shot through with myths and misinformation, going back to former prime minister Theresa May’s suggestion in 2011 that an illegal immigrant could not be deported because “he had a pet cat”. In fact, the critical factor was his long-term partner.

The ECHR is held up by politicians on the left and the right as the block on everything from tackling the small boats crisis to deporting foreign criminals. But research by Oxford University’s Bonavero Institute found only 0.73% of offenders had successfully appealed against deportation on human rights grounds.