The following letter was published in The Daily Telegraph on 15 May, correcting comments made by a Conservative MP and former minister, who is a critic of the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, about Winston Churchill’s attitude to a European court and the control of immigration.
SIR -- Chris Skidmore, the former energy minister, claims that the Illegal Migration Bill betrays principles for which Churchill stood (“Churchill ‘would be turning in his grave’ over migrant Bill”, report, 12 May). He thinks the great man would been a champion of the European Court of Human Rights in its current form.
Churchill spoke just twice about the case for a European court. On February 26 1948 he commended the idea because the countries of Europe needed to find a way of submitting disagreements between them “to the test of impartial justice”. On July 23 1951 he said again that a European court should “adjust disputes”. He did not envisage a body with wide powers over a large array of rights.
As for immigration, Churchill said at a cabinet meeting in 1954 that “public opinion in the United Kingdom won’t tolerate it once it gets beyond certain limits.” It is likely that he would have supported legislation more far-reaching in its aims than the current Bill to stop small boats crossing the Channel.
Lord Lexden
London SW1
