Conservatives must back ECHR exit to survive, says Jenrick

Also speaking at the conference, she did not rule out leaving the treaty, but argued deporting more failed asylum seekers should be the priority.

Whether the UK should continue its 71-year membership of the ECHR has emerged as a key dividing line between the four remaining leadership candidates at the party’s annual conference in Birmingham.

Legal challenges filed under the convention grounded flights scheduled under the government’s failed Rwanda deportation scheme, which was later ruled unlawful by the UK’s Supreme Court and has now been scrapped by Labour.

MPs on the right of the party have increasingly blamed the convention for enabling failed asylum seekers to challenge their removal from the UK.

Jenrick, who topped the first two leadership ballots of Tory MPs, has put a pledge to leave the convention at the heart of his campaign to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader – a pledge which has not been echoed by his three rivals.

Former home and foreign secretary James Cleverly wants to revive the Rwanda scheme, but has not backed an exit from ECHR.

Speaking at the conference, former security minister Tom Tugendhat said the UK should be “prepared” to leave the treaty, but should first try and “opt out of the bits you can, [and] reform the bits that aren’t working”.