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Kemi Badenoch has announced that the Conservative Party will withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) should they secure victory in the next general election.
This declaration follows a review conducted by the Conservative Party’s leading legal counsel, which concluded that adherence to the ECHR impedes migration reform and contributes to the persecution of military veterans.
While Badenoch stated last year that leaving the treaty would not be a “silver bullet” for addressing immigration, she argued on Friday that the move is now essential to “protect our borders, our veterans, and our citizens.”
The Labour Party has responded by stating that the Conservative leader has adopted “a policy she argued against” because she is “too weak to stand up to her own party in the face of Reform.”
The announcement, made on the eve of the party’s conference in Manchester, is expected to solidify the party’s stance after months of internal debate.
The ECHR has become a key point of contention within the Conservative Party’s immigration discourse, with senior figures claiming that its provisions have hindered efforts to deport foreign criminals and unsuccessful asylum seekers.
The announcement of plans to withdraw represents a significant shift in Conservative policy and is likely to become a central theme of the party’s election campaign.
It comes amid increasing pressure from Reform UK, which has already committed to leaving the ECHR.
Badenoch stated: “I have not come to this decision lightly, but it is clear that it is necessary to protect our borders, our veterans, and our citizens.”
“I have always been clear that we should leave the ECHR, if necessary, but unlike other parties we have done the serious work to develop a plan to do so – backed by legal advice from a distinguished King’s Counsel.”
The announcement follows a detailed legal review led by shadow attorney general Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, which concluded that the ECHR placed “significant constraints” on the government.
The review, commissioned by Badenoch in June, assessed the impact of international law on five key Conservative policy proposals: deporting foreign criminals and illegal immigrants, protecting military veterans from legal action, prioritising British citizens in access to public services, ensuring prison sentences reflect parliamentary intent, and preventing courts from using climate change laws to block planning reforms.
“In all the five policy areas, the ECHR places significant constraints,” Lord Wolfson concluded.
This week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government would look again at how international laws including the ECHR were interpreted by UK courts – to stop unsuccessful asylum seekers blocking their deportation on the grounds they could be sent to worse prisons or healthcare systems.
Sir Keir told the BBC he did not want to “tear down” human rights laws, but said mass migration in recent years meant there needed to be a change.
Legal experts have cautioned that leaving the ECHR would carry serious political and legal ramifications.
Catherine Barnard, a University of Cambridge professor of EU Law, has pointed out that withdrawal would isolate the UK alongside Russia and risk breaching both the Good Friday Agreement and the UK-EU trade deal.
However, Lord Wolfson’s nearly 200-page legal advice reportedly found that alternative domestic attempts to mitigate the impact of the ECHR rules would be ineffective.
He also stated that withdrawal would not breach the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement or the Windsor Framework.
A Labour Party spokesperson said the decision had been “forced on” Badenoch, and not been “thought through”.
“Badenoch now thinks she is both incapable of negotiating changes to the ECHR with our international partners, and a sufficiently accomplished diplomatic operator to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement.”
Conservative shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the ECHR had “enabled foreign criminals and illegal immigrants to stay in the UK”, adding: “Protecting our borders is non-negotiable.”
During previous debates on immigration, moderate conservatives have expressed concern about leaving the ECHR.
In 2023, ex-deputy prime minister Damian Green said leaving the ECHR was a “red line” for the One Nation Tories group he chaired.
More recently, Boris Johnson’s justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland said leaving the ECHR would be an act of folly – calling instead for reform from within.
A Reform UK spokesman said “nobody trusts a single word” the Conservatives said.
“The Conservatives had 14 years in government to leave the ECHR. Since then, it’s taken them 14 months to even decide what their policy is,” the spokesman said.
“The Conservative Party is finished.”
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