After the atrocities committed on the continent during the Second World War, the European Convention on Human Rights was proposed by Winston Churchill. It was modelled on the protections enshrined for centuries under English Common Law. So, you can see we had perfectly good human rights under our own laws before we joined the EU - and we will after we leave.

Under Tony Blair's Labour Government, the Convention was incorporated into UK law by means of the Human Rights Act (1998). This has subsequently led to all kinds of abuses and to it being described as a charter for criminals and terrorists.

This is because of numerous decisions by the European Court of Justice. British Courts have found themselves powerless to deport foreign terrorists, murderers, rapists and paedophiles, all because the European Court of Human Rights ('ECHR') has decided that it might infringe their 'human rights' to do so.

In fact, leaving the EU would not make much practical difference to our situation regarding either the Convention or the ECHR. However, if a British Parliament decided to repeal the Human Rights Act, and remove our country from the jurisdiction of the ECHR, then we could return power to Parliament, and legal jurisdiction to our own Supreme Court - but that is a separate issue.