England may abandon the Human Rights Convention.

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) - Britain should consider abandoning the European Convention on Human Rights because it interferes with the government's ability to fight crime and control immigration, British Home Secretary Theresa May said on Saturday.

May's Conservative Party has long criticized the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which is based in Strasbourg and applies the convention, as a form of interference in British sovereignty.

But supporters of the convention say it is an important safeguard for human rights in Britain, which does not have a written constitution protecting fundamental rights.

In a speech at a pro-Conservative conference, May stated that, before the next general election in 2015, her party should commit to the issue.

"By 2015 we will need a plan to deal with the European Court of Human Rights. And yes, I want to make it clear that all options – including even leaving the convention – must be on the table," May said.

This view was floated in newspapers a week ago, but it was the first time May had spoken about it in person and so explicitly. She has already been accused of leading a "shift to the right" by the Conservatives after the humiliating defeat in the special parliamentary election on March 1st, when her party came in third place, behind the anti-European UKIP.

ECHR is not a European Union institution, but it has been involved in a broader debate regarding Britain's ties with the bloc.

Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives, has promised that if his party wins the election in two years, a referendum will be held by 2017 to decide whether the British remain in or leave the European Union.

Coincidentally, May spoke on the same day that the radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada, whose case is the most frequently cited example by British critics of Echr, was returned to prison for violating the terms of his parole.

The government wants to deport the cleric to Jordan, where he is wanted on terrorism charges, but last January the Echr ruled that he cannot be legally deported because a trial in Jordan could be tainted by evidence obtained under torture.

Echr overturned the British court's decision in the case, sparking outrage in Britain. Many critics say that decisions like Qatada's protect the human rights of those who show little regard for the human rights of others.

"When Strasbourg constantly changes the goalposts and avoids the deportation of dangerous men like Abu Qatada... we have to ask ourselves, what is the purpose of us being signatories to the convention?", May said on Saturday.

In 2010, the Conservatives promised to replace the Human Rights Statute, the legislation that enshrines the European convention in British law, with a new bill.

The government created a commission in March 2011, but in December 2012 it reported that its panel of experts had failed to reach an agreement on what should be done.