A previous version of this article stated the decision was made by the ECHR. This has now been ammended to reflect that it was not their decision.

An Albanian criminal who snuck his way back into Britain after being deported was allowed to stay.

Ardit Binaj was deported just six months into a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for burglary.

The 32-year-old entered the UK illegally in a lorry back in 2014 and later claimed removal would breach his Article 8 rights to a family life.

The shocking case will reignite a national debate about Britain’s relationship with the European Court of Human Rights.

Tory leadership frontrunner Robert Jenrick said: “The convention has been stretched so far beyond recognition that it’s become a charter for criminals.

“It has repeatedly offered loopholes to dangerous foreign criminals who threaten the British public so they can avoid deportation.

“Reform of Article 8 is a fantasy. The only way we can put an end to farcical cases like this is if we leave the convention altogether, and guarantee our own rights.”

Father-of-one Binaj, who arrived in the UK in a lorry in 2014, was arrested a year later on suspicion of burglary. He was jailed for 30 months, in 2016.

But after being sent back to Albania, he travelled back to the UK.

The judge in the Albanian’s initial appeal is said to have believed he wanted to return to Albania to “avoid serving his prison sentence”.

The 32-year-old had claimed he wanted to visit his seriously ill grandmother.

Binaj is said to have waited until his won was born in September 2020 to apply to stay in the UK, under the post-Brexit EU Settlement Scheme – “as he believed that that would increase his chances of remaining in the UK”, said the judge.

He married his girlfriend, Diana Bolgova, a month later.

But the Home Office launched deportation proceedings against him after his bid to stay was rejected.

And Binaj then claimed being sent back to Albania would breach his rights to a family life.

His lawyers argued that his wife was suffering severe anxiety and “depressive symptoms” after recently discovering that her mother had died a violent death when Ms Bolgova was aged 11.

And her health problems had been made worse by her grandmother’s illness and an aunt’s husband’s suicide, the court heard.

There was also a scare over the couple’s son’s health.

And the judge ruled it would be “unduly harsh” on her and her son to be separated from Binaj, adding she might not get the health treatment she needed in Albania.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed calls for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the ECHR, adding it does “provide people with protections that they wouldn’t otherwise have”.

Asked if he would support a referendum on ECHR membership, he told The Daily Telegraph: “It has become much more legally adventurist.

“It’s trying to second-guess what national jurisdiction should do.

“There’s a strong case for a proper referendum, a proper discussion about it, because I’m not certain that it actually provides people with protections that they wouldn’t otherwise have.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “Foreign nationals who commit crimes should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced, and where appropriate we will pursue their deportation and ensure the rules are respected and enforced.

“We have already begun delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK, with 3,000 people already being returned since the new Government came into power.”