Braverman cannot dispense with human rights. They’re God’s idea

In declaring her intention to rip up the UN refugee convention, the Home Secretary is creating the extreme politics she espouses to fear, says George Pitcher. Until the UK looks after its global neighbour, our migration problems cannot be solved

In her keynote speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC this week, Suella Braverman warned the right-wing think tank that Europe was at a “critical juncture” when it came to global migration challenges. Failure to address illegal migration would, she said, “create the conditions for more extreme politics.”

It was an odd sort of warning from the Home Secretary, as she appears simultaneously to be putting down her marker for leading this more extreme version of politics. That much is evident in her declared desire to dismantle the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, with all its annoying commitments to protecting the world’s weakest peoples.