Blunkett says UK will stay in human rights convention

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has played down the prospect of Britain pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights to help it tackle the crisis over asylum.

Nine days after Tony Blair said that the Government might need to re-examine its obligations under the convention, Mr Blunkett made clear his preference for making his recent changes to the asylum system work.

The Home Secretary told BBC Radio 4 yesterday: "The option of pulling out [of the convention] is one which none of us would want to contemplate lightly, not least because of the acrimony, the disdain that we would be held in in the international community."

But he did not rule out reform, saying Britain had already opened talks with the United Nations on revising the Geneva rules.