Nigel Farage and a human rights law specialist clashed over the European Convention on Human Rights.
GB News host Nigel said last night’s ruling was “an affront to Brexit Britain, to any thoughts that we are a sovereign nation in charge of our own decisions”.
But Paul Garlick QC, who joined Nigel on his show to discuss the court’s decision to prevent a plane from leaving the UK for Rwanda with migrants on it, disagreed.
Human rights law specialist Paul Garlick QC
GB News
The flight would have been the first after the Government announced its Rwanda immigration scheme, which has faced much criticism since the announcement.
Mr Garlick told Nigel that his opinion was “completely wrong”.
He said that the ECHR’s decision to block the flight from leaving “was not a final determination".
He added: "It was not a threat to our judicial sovereignty at all!”
Mr Garlick went on to explain that it was not the ECHR’s decision to intervene, rather that the lawyers of the migrants had gone to the courts after exhausting all other options.
Putting his case forward to Nigel, Mr Garlick asked “Do you agree with the ECHR’s Article 2, right to life?”
To which, Nigel quipped: “I don’t need to be given the right to life or the right to anything by a body in Strasbourg!
"I don’t need that, I have that as a freeborn person in this country!
“I don’t need it, it’s not necessary, we are not a third world country that needs to be monitored!”
Finishing the interview, Nigel asked: “There is a question here of who governs Britain.
Nigel quipped "I don’t need to be given the right to life or the right to anything by a body in Strasbourg!"
GB News
"If we vote for a government and the government is very clear with the British electorate what it intends to do and forms a majority, should it not be able to carry that out under our democratic system without interference from a foreign court?”
Mr Garlick responded: “Well that’s exactly what Russia said two months ago when it tried to withdraw from the European Convention and in fact they were expelled from the European Convention before they were entitled to withdraw.
“If we withdraw from the European Convention, we’re going to be the pariah of Europe.
"We’ll be no better than Russia.”