Labour is considering cracking down on the use of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to block deportations of illegal migrants. Article 8 of the ECHR, which guarantees the right to family life, has been cited in several cases where illegal migrants - including foreign criminals - have won the right to remain in the UK.

Now, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is reviewing how Article 8 is being applied in immigration courts to make sure the law is being interpreted in a "sensible" way. Labour is now reviewing how other European countries, including Demark, interpret the law. Denmark has increasingly cracked down on illegal immigration with increased deportations.

The news comes after several high-profile cases where failed asylum seekers were allowed to remain in the UK, including an Albanian criminal who avoided deportation after claiming his son would not eat foreign chicken nuggets and a Pakistani paedophile who escaped deportation because it would "harm his children".

"We basically want to make sure it can't be exploited after a small amount of cases where Article 8 has been interpreted pretty broadly," a Whitehall insider told The Sun.

A spokesperson for Keir Starmer added: "The Home Secretary is continuing to review the application of Article 8 within the immigration system, and will set out further details in due course."