Priti Patel was told Tories could not renegotiate Refugee Convention in UN meeting last year

Former home secretary Priti Patel was told “bluntly” by the United Nations last year that the UK stood no chance of renegotiating the international Refugee Convention, sources have told i in a blow to Suella Braverman’s call to rip up the treaty.

The current Home Secretary this week used a highly controversial speech in Washington DC to argue that the 1951 Convention, drawn up after the horrors of the Second World War, was out of date and should be redrawn to fit the modern age as she continues to grapple with the Channel small boats crisis.

Ms Braverman faced a major backlash from Conservatives, barristers, experts and Sir Elton John after she suggested that the Convention should make clear that women and gay people who face “discrimination” should not get refugee status.

But multiple sources have told i that Dame Priti, alongside Rwanda’s foreign minister, raised the prospect of reforming the Convention during a visit to the UN last year, when the Tory MP was still home secretary, but were told by the head of the UNHCR refugee agency that they had little prospect of achieving their aim.

“The UNHCR pretty bluntly told Patel last year that they weren’t going to open the door to renegotiations,” one insider said.

The insider acknowledged that the UNHCR was likely acting somewhat out of self interest and that it would ultimately be up to 146 countries that have signed up to the convention whether it wanted to make changes.

However, a UN source told i that it has “no intention to reopen discussions” on the convention, suggesting it would not act as a facilitator.

The source added that signatories to the Convention agreed to reaffirm the international refugee protection regime in 2016 with the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees.

Ms Braverman this week attempted to brush off suggestions that reforming the Convention was unrealistic, telling reporters in the US: “I am inviting my international partners to engage in an exercise of review and reform.

“Ultimately, I think it’s legitimate to ask these questions whether the definition of refugee in the international conventions is still fit for purpose, whether the definition of persecution has been stretched beyond a reasonable limit, and that’s in face of these high numbers that we are now seeing.”

Meanwhile, Patel on Thursday suggested that ministers should instead look to derogate from parts of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to kickstart the Rwanda deportation scheme, which she launched but remains stalled in the courts a year-and-a-half later.

Ms Braverman has made clear she personally backs quitting the ECHR while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has refused to rule it out amid pressure from Tory right-wingers to make leaving an election manifesto pledge.

Patel told GB News: “I don’t think the Government can take options off the table, I really don’t, and I’ve always thought that, of course, it will come with endless challenges and difficulties.

“And by the way, difficulties that might even impact existing legislation and the immigration bill…we can do much more, there’s no doubt about that, through derogations of the ECHR.

“Current members of the Government who were in previous roles in Government were asked to do the work in the last government on this. So clearly it’s right that we look at all of this.”

She went on: “But what I would say, having these conversations this side of a general election, when we could be six to eight months away from a general election, that’s not going to lead to delivery.

“The question is, and I’m sure the public will be interested in this, will we go into the next general election again with a manifesto for reform or leaving the ECHR, which the Conservatives have done?

Patel added: “I would say it’s part of the reforms and changes in Britain post Brexit. The crucial thing about that is that we said we would reclaim sovereignty, we’d be in control of our laws. I believe that totally, I believe that and it’s right that we do that.”