22 Former Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested as much in a 2006 letter to then-Home Secretary John Reid. According to news reports, the letter stated that the UK “will need to look again at whether primary legislation is needed to address the issue of court rulings which overrule the government in a way that is inconsistent with other EU countries’ interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights.” Further, “A Downing Street source said a range of existing laws could be reviewed and new legislation was also possible. One option under consideration was to amend the 1998 Human Rights Act, which wrote the European Convention into British law, to require a ‘balance between the rights of the individual and the rights of the community to basic security.’ … He said the act could be further amended if British courts blocked moves to deport terror suspects On the basis of ‘memorandums of understanding’ that they would not be tortured. A further possibility would be for Britain to consider withdrawing from specific clauses of the European rights convention if they led to court rulings which placed ‘community safety’ at risk.” Ned Temko & Jamie Doward, “Revealed: Blair attack on human rights law,” The Observer, May 14, 2006, available at <http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/may/14/humanrights.ukcrime.> Such a decision could put the UK out of compliance with the ECHR, and might also raise questions about UK compliance with the CAT, which does not permit states to take into account national security interests when deciding whether there are substantial grounds for believing that someone would be tortured.
