Kemi Badenoch has announced that a Conservative government under her leadership would pull the UK out of the European convention on human rights.
The move marks a lurch to the right for the Tories, who are attempting to stem a loss of support to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Farage has long been a critic of the ECHR and has pledged to leave it if he becomes prime minister.
Badenoch said on Friday night that she had “not come to this decision lightly, but it is clear that it is necessary to protect our borders, our veterans and our citizens”.
Critics of the ECHR claim it frustrates the government’s efforts to deal with illegal migration and deport foreign criminals.
Others argue that pulling out of the treaty would damage the UK’s international reputation and breach the Good Friday agreement, which brought an end to decades of conflict in Northern Ireland. Russia and Belarus are the only two European countries that are not signatories.
Badenoch’s decision follows the conclusion of a months-long review by David Wolfson, the shadow attorney general, which found that the treaty “places significant constraints on the government” across a range of areas, including border control.
Lord Wolfson, a commercial barrister, deemed other options, such as renegotiating or derogating from the treaty, “either unrealistic or ineffective”.
He argued that leaving it was compatible with the Good Friday agreement and the Windsor framework negotiated by Rishi Sunak to ease post-Brexit trading arrangements.
Badenoch’s announcement, which the Guardian reported on Thursday was coming, was made after the shadow cabinet met to sign off the policy.
The Conservative party said: “Unlike Reform UK, who have made slapdash announcements with no consideration of the implications and no plan to deliver behind them, the Conservatives have done the serious work to explore the legal and practical considerations necessary to leave the ECHR in an orderly manner.”
The ECHR was established in 1950 and sets out the rights and freedoms people are entitled to in the 46 signatory countries of the Council of Europe. It is a central part of UK human rights law and has been used to halt attempts to deport people who are deemed to be in the UK illegally.
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Its critics focused their concerns on article 3, which protects against inhuman or degrading treatment, and article 8, which helps to protect the right to private and family life, arguing that they are being interpreted too broadly by judges and prevent legitimate deportations.
Individuals and countries can only make an application to the European court of human rights in Strasbourg after they have exhausted every domestic route.
During the Conservative leadership election last summer, membership of the ECHR became a dividing line between Badenoch and Robert Jenrick. Badenoch argued that leaving the ECHR would not solve the UK’s problems, while Jenrick said his party would “die” if it argued to stay in.
