Britain spends millions of pounds a year on the human rights body whose judges founded Priti Patel’s asylum flight to Rwanda.

The British government is one of the largest financial contributors to the Council of Europe, whose 46 members include the Azerbaijani dictatorship.

The council, which has received £310m from Britain over the past decade, aims to promote democracy and the rule of law. But its human rights czar, Dunja Mijatovic, has criticized Home Secretary Miss Patel for her attempts to stop migrants crossing the Channel.

She urged British MPs to “reject proposals that allow relocation” and called for more “safe and legal avenues” to seek asylum. Miss Mijatovic also claimed the government’s border policy was “repressive”. The council, which receives funding of £400m a year, funds the European Court of Human Rights to the tune of £64m a year.

Strasbourg court officials have repeatedly rejected requests from the Daily Mail to reveal the identity of the judge who blocked asylum seekers from being sent to Africa. They only confirmed that the decision was made either by the Hungarian Peter Paczolay or by Carlo Ranzoni, a Swiss lawyer representing Liechtenstein.

The injunction, which said the deportees faced a ‘real risk of irreversible harm’, prevents migrants from being sent to Rwanda until three weeks after British judges issue a final ruling on the legality of the deportation. Politics.

Council of Europe human rights czar Dunja Mijatovic has previously criticized Home Secretary Priti Patel for her attempts to stop migrants crossing the English Channel

The council has received £310m from Britain over the past decade

Strasbourg judges have a tax-free salary of at least £170,000 a year, while senior council officials can earn up to that. Their packages include benefits such as a retirement salary pension and travel expenses.

They can also apply for an expatriate allowance of 12.5% ​​of their salary to cover the cost of living in the French city.

UK contributions to the council this year have fallen from £29.7m to £32.7m because Russia has been kicked out and is no longer making payments.

Council officials said this equates to less than 50p per Briton each year. Only France, Italy and Germany pay more into council coffers, with amounts based on population size and economic output.

Tory MPs say the tribunal has become too political in its decisions on human rights and that Justice Secretary Dominic Raab aims to ‘insulate’ UK courts from its case law.

A Council of Europe spokesperson said: “Every British citizen benefits from the protections offered by the European Convention on Human Rights and the Strasbourg Court which are designed to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”