DAVID Cameron has significantly hardened his position on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as his party's annual conference threatens to be overshadowed by the electoral threat from Ukip.
The Prime Minister suggested the UK could be forced to withdraw from the convention to ensure foreign criminals are deported.
His comments come as his party conference shadow boxes the anti-European Ukip, which poses a significant challenge in many Tory-held constituencies.
Ukip will not be mentioned from the conference stage, as part of a plan to deny the party the oxygen of publicity, but the strategy looks likely to fail, with Ukip leader Nigel Farage due to speak at three fringe meetings today.
An analysis published yesterday also suggested donors were deserting the Tory party for their anti-European rivals
The convention is enshrined in British law but is despised by many on the Conservative right. Some have called for the UK to withdraw from it completely.
"That may be where we end up", Mr Cameron said.
The ECHR, which includes provisions including the right to a family life, has been cited by criminals to argue that they should be allowed to stay in the UK. It is enshrined in law through the Human Rights Act.
Mr Cameron said: "I think what we need to do is look and think about the outcome we want. I'm less interested in which convention we're signed up to. As Prime Minister, what I want to know is can I keep our country safe."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article