He added “we need to look again at the interpretation” of a wide range of international laws by UK courts. “But it’s more than that,” he said, pointing to the UN’s Refugee Convention, Torture Convention and Convention on the Rights of the Child as potential barriers. Leading human rights lawyer Shami Chakrabarti said the number of cases where the courts have ruled someone cannot be removed because of inhuman and degrading treatment, were “very very rare”. In May, the government’s immigration white paper promised legislation to “clarify” how the right to a family life in European human rights law should apply to immigration cases. Before being made foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper ordered home officials to look into how courts used laws that halted deportations on torture grounds.