The Human Rights Act "needs to go" to restore "sanity" into the UK's immigration system, Home Secretary Theresa May said as she received a standing ovation from Tory activists.
Mrs May said she was planning to change the rules which prevented foreign inmates from being deported once they had served a prison sentence because it would breach their human rights.
There were audible gasps in the main hall at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester as she reeled off examples of ex-prisoners who could not be deported because they had a girlfriend or pet cat.
She said the problem was caused with the way the British courts interpreted the law, adding that the right to a family life was not "absolute" and could not be allowed to "drive a coach and horses through our immigration system".
She told delegates: "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."
Mrs May also insisted that she wanted to focus the job of the police, saying they needed to become the "no-nonsense crimefighters they signed up to be".
"I haven't asked the police to be social workers, I haven't set them performance indicators and I haven't given them a 30-point plan. I've told them to cut crime."
The Home Secretary also hit out at the rioters, insisting this summer's disorder "wasn't about poverty or politics".
"It was about greed and criminality, fuelled by a culture of irresponsibility and entitlement," she added.
"To those who say the judges were too tough, I say the guilty should get what they deserve."
The Human Rights Act "needs to go" to restore "sanity" into the UK's immigration system, Home Secretary Theresa May said as she received a standing ovation from Tory activists.
Mrs May said she was planning to change the rules which prevented foreign inmates from being deported once they had served a prison sentence because it would breach their human rights.
There were audible gasps in the main hall at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester as she reeled off examples of ex-prisoners who could not be deported because they had a girlfriend or pet cat.
She said the problem was caused with the way the British courts interpreted the law, adding that the right to a family life was not "absolute" and could not be allowed to "drive a coach and horses through our immigration system".
She told delegates: "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."
Mrs May also insisted that she wanted to focus the job of the police, saying they needed to become the "no-nonsense crimefighters they signed up to be".
"I haven't asked the police to be social workers, I haven't set them performance indicators and I haven't given them a 30-point plan. I've told them to cut crime."
The Home Secretary also hit out at the rioters, insisting this summer's disorder "wasn't about poverty or politics".
"It was about greed and criminality, fuelled by a culture of irresponsibility and entitlement," she added.
"To those who say the judges were too tough, I say the guilty should get what they deserve."