Peter Munce: Cameron must make up his mind on human rights

The latest instalment in the Qatada saga comes after a ruling on Tuesday from the Court of Appeal, which rejected the Home Secretary’s appeal to the Supreme Court of an earlier ruling by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission that Qatada could not be deported to Jordan.

The efforts of successive UK governments over the past 10 years to have the radical Islamist cleric deported to Jordan have been frustrated by both the domestic judicial process in Britain and by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg because of the risk that evidence could be used against him that was obtained by torture.

The significance of the Abu Qatada extradition saga lies in what it reveals about Tory views on the Strasbourg court and how destabilising human rights can potentially be for the overall cohesion of the coalition government.

For many Conservative MPs, the Abu Qatada case has become a symbol for everything that, they argue, is wrong with the European Court of Human Rights and human rights law in general.

The Coalition Agreement and the garden nuptials between David Cameron and Nick Clegg just under three years ago seem like a long time ago indeed.

At the outset, there were obvious differences between the Conservatives and Lib Dems on human rights.

Cameron entered the election with a commitment to repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights while the Lib Dems pledged to defend and uphold the Act.

However, these differences were soon swept under the carpet and a Commission was established to “investigate the creation of a UK Bill of Rights that incorporates and builds on all our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights”.

Crucially, for Lib Dems, this could be viewed as a policy victory given the fact that the Commission was clearly to take Britain’s continued adherence to the ECHR as a floor and not a ceiling and therefore not up for negotiation or discussion.

Tensions over human rights will continue for the lifetime of the coalition and have the potential to affect the cohesion of the Government.

Within the Conservative Party itself, the centre of gravity on the European Convention and European Court of human rights is moving further to the right. Cabinet members such as Theresa May, the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles have talked very publically about the option of UK withdrawal from the ECHR.

Where Cameron actually stands on this is unclear. Since he became leader, he has adopted a variety of positions. In the run-up to the Conservative leadership contest in August 2005, he argued that Britain could “leave – perhaps temporarily – the ECHR” to deal with the issue over deportation of terrorist suspects.

Less than a year later, he appeared to row back from that position arguing in a speech that “leaving the ECHR would send a message to all those countries that we encouraged to sign up to it that you cannot have rights and security at the same time”.

It is also easy to forget that just last year the UK was chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe during which the PM made a speech in which he said: “I want no one here to doubt the British commitment to defending human rights... nor the British understanding that the Council of Europe, the Convention and the Court have played a vital role in upholding those rights.”

In recent times, the Tory leader has talked tough on human rights. Talking tough, however, is not enough for many Conservative MPs. He knows that a significant proportion of his backbench MPs and his grassroots are on the offensive over the European Court and human rights issues generally.

Indeed, according to a recent poll on the influential Conservative Home website, replacing “European human rights laws with a British Bill of Rights” was one of the top ideas listed for winning the next election.

They want blood and want the Prime Minister to extend his assault on European institutions to the ECHR.

A number are getting exasperated with the apparent game of Convention hokey cokey that the Prime Minister is currently playing. So far, he has managed to deflect criticism from his MPs for failing to act on the ECHR by blaming his coalition partners for tying his hands.

The Lib Dems would never sign up to UK withdrawal from the ECHR and so for Cameron, this politics of deflection can only go on for so long.

David Cameron and others have promised action on human rights ahead of the Conservatives’ next election manifesto and sooner or later he will have to make up his mind on the approach that he intends to pursue.