Theresa May to 'rip up' human rights laws to tackle terrorism

Theresa May has said she will rip up some human rights laws if they stop her from tackling terrorism.

As the election campaign entered its final hours, the Prime Minister told supporters she would change any laws that got in the way of preventing jihadis waging war on Britain.

Mrs May said: "As we see the threat changing, evolving becoming a more complex threat, we need to make sure that our police and security and intelligence agencies have the powers they need.

"I mean longer prison sentences for people convicted of terrorist offences. I mean making it easier for the authorities to deport foreign terrorist suspects back to their own countries.

"And I mean doing more to restrict the freedom and the movements of terrorist suspects when we have enough evidence to know they are a threat, but not enough evidence to prosecute them in full in court.

"And if our human rights laws stop us from doing it, we will change the laws so we can do it.

"If I am elected as Prime Minister on Thursday, that work begins on Friday."

Page 2: 19:44

The Conservative manifesto says the party will not repeal the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) while Brexit is under way but will "consider our human rights legal framework when the process of leaving the EU concludes".

Senior Tory sources said a derogation from the laws could be used.

As home secretary, Mrs May scrapped control orders, which allowed longer curfews among other tough measures, claiming they were being knocked down in the courts.

She replaced them with less restrictive T-pims.