UK: Theresa May pledges to end 'family rights' bar on deportation

Theresa May pledges to end 'family rights' bar on deportation

New immigration rules are to be introduced to make it more difficult for foreign criminals to resist deportation by invoking their right to a family life under the European convention on human rights.

Theresa May, the home secretary, announced on Sunday that changes will be in place by the summer to make clear the ECHR can only be used as a bar to deportation in "rare and exceptional cases".

[...]

Home Office sources told the Sunday Telegraph that the UK Borders Act 2007, passed by the last Labour government, complicated deportations by creating an exemption if an individual's human rights are breached. May will make clear in the new rules that a right to family life will not prevent the deportation of a foreign national who has been convicted of a criminal offence, has breached immigration rules or cannot maintain themselves or their family.

Ugh. 

But the courts have decided that the legal standard is "proportionality" - surely the Government just amending the Immigration Rules won't affect that? ECHR is the law, and the "proportionality" interpretation surely has to remain until the law changes.