Human rights row: Cameron splits with Gove and May

The three weeks since the general election have been marked by splits within Labour and Ukip. Now it's the Tory government's turn.

David Cameron, it emerges, has ruled out withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights despite serious objections from two of his most senior colleagues, Michael Gove and Theresa May.

Not that the other parties can gloat: they remain divided too, with Labour leadership contender Yvette Cooper turning on two of her rivals, and Ukip's Douglas Carswell refusing to bury the hatchet with party leader Nigel Farage.

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The Tory split: human rights

In what the Daily Telegraph cites as "the first major cabinet split since the election", Gove and May are said to be adamant that pulling out of the human rights convention "entirely" may be the "only solution" to re-establishing the supremacy of British courts over the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Human Rights Act: Cameron delays abolition move

As Justice Secretary, it was Gove's job to steer through parliament the scrapping of the Human Rights Act 1998 (the act that incorporates the European convention into British law) until Cameron decided to drop the project from the Queen's Speech for the time being under considerable pressure from senior Tories and human rights groups.

As Home Secretary, May has had to deal with what she sees as the constant interference of the Strasbourg judges who have allowed serious criminals to avoid deportation. Most notoriously, their lawyers have invoked the "right to family life" enshrined in the human rights convention.

Last year, May finally succeeded in returning the radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada to Jordan after accusing the Strasbourg court of repeatedly "moving the goalposts".

One Tory delighted that Cameron has stood up to May and Gove is Dominic Grieve, the former Attorney General, who was sacked last summer after defending the convention and the Strasbourg court. He has warned that withdrawal from the convention would have a knock-on effect for Britain's EU membership.

But May and Gove have their backers, among them the senior Tory MP Philip Davies who told the Telegraph: "It is very disappointing. The European Court of Human Rights is full of pseudo judges, most of whom are political appointees.

"The convention has become a charter for illegal immigrants to avoid deportation and for criminals to pursue vexatious claims. I have no idea why we would want to stay part of that."

The Ukip split: 'mean-spirited' agenda

Douglas Carswell, Ukip's only MP following the party's disappointing general election result, has "threatened to reignite the struggle for power" at the top of the party – in the words of The Independent – by addressing again Nigel Farage's controversial comments about HIV sufferers coming to Britain for expensive treatment on the NHS.

Asked by John Pienaar on BBC Radio 5 Live if he had settled his differences with Farage over his control of the party, Carswell said Farage had "always been the leader of Ukip and I've never, never questioned that at all".

However, he said: "I think the comments about HIV were plain wrong."[They were] wrong on so many levels. Not just wrong because they were electorally unhelpful but just wrong because they were wrong."

Carswell suggested Ukip would do better to remember that "there's something wonderfully generous about this country… and if we frame debates that are mean-spirited I think a lot of people in this country will be put off."