Leaving ECHR to become Tory policy

The Conservative Party Conference begins on Monday, 5th October, and reports indicate that their leader, Kemi badenoch will announce plans for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). She argues that Britain’s membership prevents them from controlling immigration and pursuing their flagship Rwanda deportation scheme. In this telling, Strasbourg judges are seen as “foreign” arbiters who override the will of Parliament.

But stepping back, the proposal looks far more radical than its supporters admit. The ECHR was drafted in the aftermath of the Second World War, with British lawyers and politicians central to its design. Winston Churchill himself saw it as a safeguard against tyranny. Today, every European country except Russia and Belarus belongs to the Convention. To leave would put Britain in troubling company.

The practical consequences would also be severe. The ECHR underpins the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland and is woven into the devolution settlements in Scotland and Wales. It also supports cooperation with European partners on security and policing, where shared rights frameworks build trust. Exiting would not just weaken civil liberties at home, but also diminish the UK’s credibility abroad.

The Liberal Democrats have been clear in their opposition. Party spokespeople argue that leaving the ECHR would put hard-won freedoms at risk, undermine Britain’s moral standing, and create needless instability in the Union. Instead of scapegoating international law, they say, the government should focus on fixing its own broken asylum system.

As Robert Harrison, Chair of Liberal Democrats in Europe (LDEG), puts it: “Walking away from the ECHR would be a betrayal of Britain’s post-war legacy and of the values we share with our European neighbours. The Convention protects ordinary people from abuses of power – abandoning it would make us less safe, less free, and more isolated.”

The Conservative leadership may see political advantage in picking another fight with Europe. But for voters, the choice is starker: whether Britain remains committed to the basic rights that once defined its global leadership, or turns its back on them for the sake of a short-term political slogan.