TORY Prime Minister David Cameron went to war with his own party yesterday as he admitted he was prepared to pull Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). 

Pressed on the controversial move in the Commons by Tory MP and former minister Andrew Mitchell, Mr Cameron said he ruled “absolutely nothing out” in his bid to scrap Britain’s Human Rights Act. 

Mr Mitchell said there was “considerable concern on both sides of the House” over the prospect of withdrawing from the ECHR. And the Prime Minister’s position contradicted a statement given by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Tuesday.

Mr Hammond had reassured MPs that an ECHR exit was “not on the table” after it was reported that Tory Cabinet members were at daggers over the issue. Clearly expecting the Prime Minister to rule out the move, Mr Mitchell asked: “Will you take the opportunity today to make clear you have no plans for us to do so?”

But Mr Cameron replied: “If we can’t achieve what we need — and I’m very clear about that when we’ve got these ­foreign criminals committing offence after offence and we can’t send them home because of their right to a family life — that needs to change and I rule out absolutely nothing in getting that done.”

Shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer said yesterday that Labour would oppose Tory plans to scrap human rights all the way. “Withdrawing from the convention would do incredible damage to the UK’s standing in the world and it is shocking that the government should dither over this issue,” he said.