Gordon Brown has said in a stark warning to the Prime Minister that Vladimir Putin will seek to exploit Rishi Sunak’s withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights.

The former Labor chancellor accused Sunak’s government of “systematically undermining” international law and warned that the Russian president – who is subject to an international arrest warrant on war crimes charges – would use any measure to “make a mockery of the legitimacy of human rights law”.

Sunak has threatened to withdraw from the convention if the UK thwarts its flagship policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. His upcoming new legislation will scrap parts of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act, after a British judge ruled that the East African country was unsafe for refugees.

Brown warned that ministers already have the power to ignore interim measures from the European Court of Human Rights and warned that the new “notwithstanding clause” in the government’s new bill was “of a completely different order of magnitude”.

The clauses claim that the bill’s provisions override “any interpretation of international law” as well as interpretation of domestic law by courts or tribunals, giving the home secretary the power to decide whether to comply with any temporary European ban, such as a temporary halt to flights to the United States. The former prime minister noted that Flights to Rwanda.

write for eraMr Brown said: “When Sunak comes to No 10, he has the opportunity to reaffirm the core British values ​​that Johnson and Truss have dealt with for years. However, although he has not formally withdrawn from the European Court of Human Rights – — an issue he has with the party’s far right — but he appears to have abandoned its core elements.

“Under the Conservative government, the entire body of international law – not just the European Convention on Human Rights but also the Refugee Convention and general human rights and humanitarian law – is being systematically undermined.

“The result? Russia will use the UK’s withdrawal to mock the legitimacy of international human rights law, and our voices in the world will be increasingly ignored.”

This is not the first time Brown has issued such a warning. Written in January “Countries such as Hungary and Turkey will inevitably cite the UK’s actions when they refuse to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and similar instruments”.

“The South African government recently proposed that it would choose which Refugee Convention obligations should be adhered to. This will not be the last,” Mr Brown said.

In keeping with growing voices from the Tory right, Sunak has in recent months hardened his rhetoric and stance on the European Court of Human Rights, declaring last week that controlling immigration was more important than “membership of foreign courts” – —and Britain helped in this regard. Established 70 years ago.

However, moderate One Nation Conservative MPs have warned against withdrawing from the convention, while others have warned the move would breach the Good Friday Agreement, which includes a requirement to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into Northern Ireland law.

Rwanda’s foreign minister, Vincent Biruta, warned the government in December that legislation needed to adhere to the “highest standards of international law” and warned that “Kigali will not be able to continue to implement the asylum agreement if the UK does not act lawfully” . “.

The following month, Siofra O’Leary, the president of the European Court of Justice, told Mr Sunak that if his government ignored an order aimed at stopping asylum seekers being sent to Rwanda, known as “Article 39 measures”), he would be in breach of human rights law. .

Britain had previously urged Putin to comply with Article 39 measures in 2021 regarding the release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic exile in February.