David Cameron is warning Nick Clegg he will get the blame if he blocks a temporary withdrawal from the European Convention of Human Rights to enable the deportation of Abu Qatada.
Sources close to the Prime Minister made clear he would expect the Liberal Democrat leader – who has insisted he will not countenance any suspension of the ECHR – to explain to voters why the hate preacher remained in Britain in such circumstances.
Home Secretary Theresa May told MPs yesterday that she has signed a new treaty with Abu Qatada’s native Jordan which, she believes, will mean the courts finally allowing his removal.
Hate preacher Abu Qatada has been the subject of an on-going battle between the government and European Convention of Human Rights
But she said the Government was also examining a temporary suspension of the ECHR if all else failed.
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‘I believe we should look at all the options and that should include leaving the jurisdiction of the court altogether,’ she told MPs. ‘The Prime Minister is looking at all the options.’
Mr Clegg was kept in the dark about a ‘council of war’ ordered by Mr Cameron on Wednesday, as the Court of Appeal refused the Home Office permission to take Qatada’s case to the Supreme Court.
The Premier told the Home Secretary, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling and Attorney General Dominic Grieve that it was ‘intolerable’ that Qatada remained in Britain.
Today Mr Clegg ruled out changing the law to accelerate the process. He told LBC 97.3: 'No one’s proposed and certainly no one’s put to me this idea that we should somehow suddenly start, I don’t know, pulling out of this or that international agreement.
He insisted: 'I want to get rid of Abu Qatada. I am as impatient as anybody in the Government to do so.
'Of course this Government is not going to act illegally.'
However, he added that he was 'quietly a little bit more optimistic' that Britain would kick Qatada out and praised Mrs May for doing a 'fantastically good job'.
Tussle: Nick Clegg, pictured today visiting the Stockwell Park Estate in Brixton, was kept in the dark about a 'council of war' ordered by David Cameron
Mr Grieve is also nderstood to be fiercely opposed to any move to leave the ECHR, and Kenneth Clarke, the Cabinet Office minister, publicly dismissed the idea.
Mr Clarke, a former Lord Chancellor, said: ‘It’s not the policy of this government to withdraw either from a short period or for a lengthy period from the European Convention on Human Rights.’
Even if the UK did withdraw, he added, it would have little impact on the Qatada case because English common law would prevent his deportation if there was a risk of torture.
The Home Secretary said a treaty containing a 'fair trials guarantee' had been struck with Jordan
‘You’re not going to get a British court to deport anybody for trial to a country where torture is going to be involved, you never have, you never will,’ Mr Clarke said.
A Downing Street source, however, insisted Mr Cameron was ‘deadly serious’ about a temporary withdrawal from the convention if the courts refused to accept the new treaty.
The source added: ‘The Prime Minister is willing to see every avenue pursued. This is a priority for him and for the British people.
‘Frankly, if anyone wants to be the person that keeps Abu Qatada in this country then they will need to stand up and make that argument.’
In the Commons, the Home Secretary said a treaty containing a ‘fair trials guarantee’ had been struck with Jordan and would reassure UK courts that torture evidence would not be used against the terrorist suspect.
But she warned: ‘Even when the treaty is fully ratified, it will not mean that Qatada will be on a plane to Jordan within days.
‘We will be able to issue a new deportation decision, but Qatada will still have legal appeals available to him, and it will therefore be up to the courts to make the final decision. That legal process may well still take many months, but in the meantime I believe Qatada should remain behind bars.’
Several Tory MPs suggested that the Government should simply ignore the Strasbourg and British courts and deport Qatada anyway.
Mrs May said: ‘The answer I give is the same as I have given in the past – I believe the UK Government should abide by the rule of law.’
Qatada is accused of plotting a terrorist atrocity in Jordan to coincide with the Millennium. His removal to stand trial there was originally approved by the British courts, only to be overruled by the European Court of Human Rights last year.
Strasbourg judges said they feared he would not get a fair trial because evidence obtained through torture might be used against him.
The Home Secretary then sought assurances from Jordan that there would be no use of torture, but an immigration tribunal ruled the assurances were not reliable and halted his removal.
Qatada, who has been resident in the UK since September 1993, was returned to jail earlier this month after he was arrested for alleged bail breaches.