The depth of divisions at the heart of Government over the Human Rights Act have been exposed after Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke flatly dismissed a call from Home Secretary Theresa May for it to be repealed.
Mrs May won a standing ovation at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester after telling party activists that the Act "needs to go" to restore "sanity" to the UK's ability to deport foreign nationals.
She said she is planning to change the rules which prevented the deportation of some prisoners on human rights grounds, and sparked audible gasps from the audience as she reeled off a list of cases of offenders who could not be deported because it would breach their right to a family life.
"We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act: the violent drug dealer who cannot be sent home because his daughter, for whom he pays no maintenance, lives here; the robber who cannot be removed because he has a girlfriend; the illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because, and I am not making this up, he had a pet cat," said Mrs May.
But Mr Clarke said such cases had "nothing to do with the Human Rights Act" and cast doubt over whether they are genuine.
He offered to have a bet with Mrs May that no individual had ever escaped deportation because of ownership of a cat, and he condemned the "trivialisation" of human rights issues which, he said, are very important to British people.
Speaking in a meeting hosted by the Telegraph on the fringe of the conference, Mr Clarke said: "She has given her opinion. We all have our opinions. It is not my opinion, as it happens. I have never had a conversation on the subject with Theresa. I shall have to look into these strange cases she is throwing out. They are British cases and British judges she is complaining about and I can't believe that anybody has had deportation refused on the basis of owning a cat."
Mr Clarke suggested that some of the cases which Mrs May complained about may be down to misinterpretation of the rules by immigration officers and said he would be "quite content" for her to make changes to their procedures.
Referring to the case involving the cat, a Judicial Office spokeswoman said: "This was a case in which the Home Office conceded that they had mistakenly failed to apply their own policy - applying at that time to that appellant - for dealing with unmarried partners of people settled in the UK. That was the basis for the decision to uphold the original tribunal decision - the cat had nothing to do with the decision."
Ms May was pressed about the accuracy of her account of the case in an interview with BBC Radio 4's World at One. She responded: "Of course the things I said in my speech were checked before they went in my speech but... if somebody has said that there is a different situation then obviously we will look at the quote that has come out and have another look at the case."
The depth of divisions at the heart of Government over the Human Rights Act have been exposed after Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke flatly dismissed a call from Home Secretary Theresa May for it to be repealed.
Mrs May won a standing ovation at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester after telling party activists that the Act "needs to go" to restore "sanity" to the UK's ability to deport foreign nationals.
She said she is planning to change the rules which prevented the deportation of some prisoners on human rights grounds, and sparked audible gasps from the audience as she reeled off a list of cases of offenders who could not be deported because it would breach their right to a family life.
"We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act: the violent drug dealer who cannot be sent home because his daughter, for whom he pays no maintenance, lives here; the robber who cannot be removed because he has a girlfriend; the illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because, and I am not making this up, he had a pet cat," said Mrs May.
But Mr Clarke said such cases had "nothing to do with the Human Rights Act" and cast doubt over whether they are genuine.
He offered to have a bet with Mrs May that no individual had ever escaped deportation because of ownership of a cat, and he condemned the "trivialisation" of human rights issues which, he said, are very important to British people.
Speaking in a meeting hosted by the Telegraph on the fringe of the conference, Mr Clarke said: "She has given her opinion. We all have our opinions. It is not my opinion, as it happens. I have never had a conversation on the subject with Theresa. I shall have to look into these strange cases she is throwing out. They are British cases and British judges she is complaining about and I can't believe that anybody has had deportation refused on the basis of owning a cat."
Mr Clarke suggested that some of the cases which Mrs May complained about may be down to misinterpretation of the rules by immigration officers and said he would be "quite content" for her to make changes to their procedures.
Referring to the case involving the cat, a Judicial Office spokeswoman said: "This was a case in which the Home Office conceded that they had mistakenly failed to apply their own policy - applying at that time to that appellant - for dealing with unmarried partners of people settled in the UK. That was the basis for the decision to uphold the original tribunal decision - the cat had nothing to do with the decision."
Ms May was pressed about the accuracy of her account of the case in an interview with BBC Radio 4's World at One. She responded: "Of course the things I said in my speech were checked before they went in my speech but... if somebody has said that there is a different situation then obviously we will look at the quote that has come out and have another look at the case."