Badenoch and Cleverly criticise leadership rivals' promises to leave ECHR

Two frontrunners to be Conservative party leader have criticised their rivals' promises to leave the European court of human rights (ECHR).

- Peter Walker , Kiran Stacey , Pippa Crerar

With days to go until the first MP is eliminated from the contest, Kemi Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, and James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, both rejected the idea of leaving the ECHR yesterday.

The former cabinet colleagues were launching their campaigns in central London on the busiest day yet of the Tory leadership contest, which will be narrowed down to five, or possibly four, candidates on Wednesday.

Speaking at her glitzy launch event, Badenoch described migration targets and pledges to leave the ECHR -both of which have been pushed by her rivals Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat - as "easy answers".

Many on the right of the party blame the ECHR for scuppering their plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

"We had a cap of tens of thousands when David Cameron came in," she said. "We need to ask ourselves, why didn't that work, rather than just saying we'll make another promise."