Justice and home departments escalate row over rights law

London: Kenneth Clarke has raised the stakes in his confrontation with the home secretary, Theresa May, accusing her of using a "laughable, child-like" example to criticise the Human Rights Act.

In an intervention that will infuriate Downing Street, the justice secretary said May should challenge her researchers after claiming that a man had been able to avoid deportation because he owned a cat.

Speaking to the Nottingham Post, he said: "I sat and listened to Theresa's speech, and I'll have to be very polite to Theresa when I meet her but in my opinion she should really address her researchers and advisers very severely for assuring her that a complete nonsense example in her speech was true.

"I'm not going to stand there and say in my private opinion this is a terrible thing and we ought to get rid of the Human Rights Act.

"It's not only the judges that all get furious when the home secretary makes a parody of a court judgement our commission who are helping us form our view on this are not going to be entertained by laughable, child-like examples being given.

No regrets

May insisted she did not regret referring to the cat in her speech, adding: "I don't regret using the case of the cat. It was a decision made by an immigration judge.

"But it was one case among many and I cited others in my speech which show the importance of this government doing something about the immigration rules to ensure that we're able to deport foreign criminals who we don't believe should be here.

Downing Street will be furious with Clarke after No 10 said it was delighted that May had said in her conference speech that illegal immigrants were abusing the Human Rights Act to fight deportation from Britain.

May illustrated her case by talking about a Bolivian national who had resisted deportation on the grounds he owned a cat, called Maya. May, who is seeking to abolish the Human Rights Act, told the Manchester conference about "the illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because I am not making this up he had a pet cat".

Speaking an hour later at a fringe meeting hosted by the Daily Telegraph, Clarke ridiculed May's remarks.

The justice secretary, a strong defender of the European convention on human rights, which provided the basis for the Human Rights Act, said: "I've never had a conversation on the subject with Theresa, so I'd have to find out about these strange cases she is throwing out.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd.