Conservatives to take UK out of ECHR if it wins election, Badenoch announces

The Conservative Party will leave the European Convention on Human Rights (EHRC) if it wins the next election, the party has announced, ahead of its conference in Manchester.

The Tories said so-called “lawfare”, including lawyers using the ECHR to stop deportation attempts, has “frustrated the country’s efforts to secure its borders and deport those with no right to be here”.

The party said a review carried out by shadow attorney general Baron Wolfson of Tredegar had found the ECHR had limited the Government’s ability to address immigration issues, as well as policies in a host of other areas.

The report, which totals nearly 200 pages, also found that membership of the ECHR could lead to restrictions on changes to climate change policy, would allow army veterans to be taken to court for actions while in the forces, and impact whether a Government could prioritise British citizens for social housing and public services.

“We believe that charity begins at home and those who have paid in should come first,” the party said.

The review also found legal challenges using the ECHR could provide “debilitating” legal challenges against potential Government policy.

However, Lord Wolfson, who was commissioned to carry out the review by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch in June, warned: “Such a decision will not be a panacea to all the issues that have arisen in recent years”.

Labour said the announcement showed Mrs Badenoch was too weak to stand up to her own party.

She is expected to announce the move in a speech to the party conference on its first day on Sunday.

Mrs Badenoch said: “It is time for Britain to leave the ECHR. 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.

“Our country, and our Parliament, must be sovereign. This step will ensure that the next Conservative Government will enact the policies the British people rightly expect: controlling our borders and strengthening our economy.”

The issue had been at the heart of the Conservative Party leadership election, which had provided the backdrop to the party’s annual event last year.

Mrs Badenoch’s leadership challenger, Robert Jenrick, had put withdrawing from the ECHR at the heart of his unsuccessful campaign.

Meanwhile, the now-Tory leader had said the move would not be a “silver bullet” in tackling immigration.

The only other country to leave the ECHR is Russia, which was expelled in 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine.

Sir Keir Starmer has said this week that the Government is considering how Article 3 and Article 8 are interpreted.

Article 3 of the ECHR, on protection from torture and inhumane and degrading treatment, and Article 8, on the right to private and family life, have been used to halt deportation attempts.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch has adopted a policy she argued against in her own leadership campaign because she is too weak to stand up to her own party in the face of Reform.

“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, despite not even knowing some of the most basic facts about Northern Irish politics as recently as yesterday.

“This is a decision that has been forced on her and not thought through.

“While the Tories and Reform fight amongst themselves, this Labour Government is cracking down on people-smuggling gangs, deporting foreign criminals and bringing forward workable and decisive solutions to bring order to Britain’s borders.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the move would do “nothing” to address issues with border control in the UK.

Sir Ed said: “Kemi Badenoch has chosen to back Nigel Farage and join Vladimir Putin by leaving the European Convention on Human Rights – a proud British creation championed by Churchill that protects everyone’s rights and freedoms.”

A Reform UK spokesman 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.

“Nobody trusts a single word they say anymore. The Conservative Party is finished.”

In his full letter to Mrs Badenoch setting out the report, Lord Wolfson said: “My overall view and advice is that should you wish to take the decision that it be Conservative Party policy that the UK should withdraw from the ECHR, such a policy would be perfectly possible both legally and practically.

“In fact, it is clear from my detailed analysis that under each of the areas which you asked me to consider, the UK’s ability to achieve the policy goals and objectives you set out will be made substantially easier by our withdrawal from the ECHR.”

He added that he did not believe the Good Friday Agreement, the UK-EU trade agreement, and the Windsor Framework were barriers to leaving the ECHR.

However, he continued: “They do present political and other issues, which I have explained in my advice.”

It comes as Mrs Badenoch told PA Media she is “staying the course” to fix the Conservative Party, which she cast as the only “credible alternative” to Labour.

The Tory leader said she will use her party’s conference to show voters “that we’re the only party that can deliver a stronger economy and stronger borders”.

She acknowledged the Tories were having a “tough time” after last year’s landslide general election defeat, dismal poll ratings and a string of defections to Reform UK.

But she struck a defiant tone, portraying herself as the right leader to revive what she called the “distressed asset” of a party.

Asked whether the comparison might dampen morale among her MPs ahead of the annual gathering, she said: “Not at all.

“I use a corporate analogy. When you have a distressed asset, you need a long-term strategy, not a short-term one, to fix it.”

On Friday, the shadow chancellor Mel Stride told the Financial Times the party would put “fiscal responsibility” at the centre of its pitch to voters.

Mr Stride warned about the state of the economy under Labour and said the bond markets could turn on Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves’s policies, meaning increases for interest rates and mortgages.

However, he said he does not share Mrs Badenoch’s view that Britain could be heading for a 1970s-style IMF bailout.

“I think that’s very unlikely,” he said. “That’s not to say we couldn’t be heading for some kind of bond crisis with runaway yields.”