The United Nations Refugee Convention is out of date, a Home Office minister said this morning ahead of a major speech on the subject by Suella Braverman. 

Chris Philp, the policing minister, said the existing convention should be “looked at on an international basis” to establish if it is fit for purpose. 

He said it had been “stretched” since its introduction after the Second World War, with “economic migrants” using it to “shop around” for the best place to claim asylum. 

Asked if he agreed the convention was out of date, Mr Philp told Times Radio: “Yes, I think it does need to be looked at on an international basis because we have seen people using asylum claims who are essentially economic migrants and we have also seen people sort of shopping around between different countries to choose where to claim asylum and that is not how the UN Refugee Convention was originally designed.”

Ms Braverman, the Home Secretary, will deliver a speech this afternoon during a visit to Washington DC in which she will warn that as many as 780 million people will be eligible to claim asylum without radical reform of global refugee rules. 

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