Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp faced fierce questions from GB News host Stephen Dixon about the Conservative Party's position on withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights.

During the interview, Stephen challenged Philp directly about the party's prolonged deliberations on ECHR membership, noting that the issue has been under consideration for approximately 12 months.

The interview occurred against the backdrop of Labour's newly implemented returns agreement with France, which saw its first detentions on Wednesday.

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Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that migrants arriving in Dover were immediately detained under the pilot programme, declaring: "We have detained the first illegal migrants under our new deal before returning them to France. No gimmicks, just results."

Stephen asked the Conservative MP on GB News: "So if the asylum claim is rejected and those people are then put on a plane home, how does that actually work in practice? It always gets caught up in legal challenges, doesn't it?"

Chris Philp explained: "Yeah, it does. So first up, we've already said we'll repeal the Human Rights Act in relation to immigration matters.

"That means domestic UK judges can't stop the deportation of foreign criminals, or people who are here illegally, or those who’ve crossed the Channel. Those people should all be removed.

"Repealing the Human Rights Act is the first step and we may need to go further and come out of the ECHR entirely. We've got a top lawyer looking at that, who’s going to report back in just a few weeks' time.

"If we need to leave the ECHR to deport foreign criminals, people here illegally, and those illegally crossing the Channel, and I suspect we probably do, then we're going to."

Stephen Dixon responded: "But you've been looking at the ECHR and whether we should be in it for a year now. When Kemi Badenoch was asked during the leadership contest, she wouldn’t commit to leaving.

"Robert Jenrick said yes, we should come out. She said we need to look at it. Isn't it about time there was a decision?"

Chris Philp responded: "You know what people up and down the country are saying people who are possibly Conservative voters they tend to want us out of the ECHR. But we want to do this properly.

"We want to think it through and not shoot from the hip. And we’re going to have the answer in just a few weeks' time. So bear with us.

"And by the way, I think it’s important to think it through properly. It's easy for Reform or whoever to say: 'Oh, we’ll do this, we’ll leave that', without thinking it through.

PA | The first set of illegal migrants has been detained

"That actually does the British public a disservice because if politicians say things they haven’t properly thought about and then can’t deliver, that’s bad for the country.

"So we’re doing the work. We’re thinking it through properly. When we have the answer in just a few weeks’ time, it’ll be one we know will work and the public can have confidence in that.

"That’s the difference between us and Reform. On immigration we may have similar objectives, but we’re going to come forward with careful, credible plans not shoot from the hip."