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 warned leaving the ECHR would carry serious political and legal consequences.
Catherine Barnard, University of Cambridge professor of EU Law, has noted withdrawal would isolate the UK alongside Russia and risk breaching both the Good Friday Agreement and the UK-EU trade deal.
But Lord Wolfson’s nearly 200 page legal advice reportedly found that alternative domestic attempts to soften the impact of the ECHR rules would be ineffective.
He also said 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.”
