James Heale James Heale

The Tories are edging towards ECHR exit

Getty

Following last month’s local elections disaster, Kemi Badenoch’s team promised a ‘step change’. So just 24 hours after Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride offered a ‘mea culpa’ for the mini-Budget, Badenoch has followed up by suggesting that the UK ‘will likely need to leave’ the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It comes amid a hardening of internal Tory opinion on the subject, following both a number of high-profile rulings by British courts and a surge in illegal migration.

‘I do believe that we will likely need to leave’, Badenoch said

Badenoch’s argument is as follows: foreign criminals, convicted of horrific abuse, currently cannot be deported. The ECHR is now being used in ways never intended by its original authors. Various nations are seeking reform of the Convention, but, alas, the Strasbourg institutions show no interest in permitting such an exercise. Given the urgent need to deter illegal migrants, it is therefore necessary to seriously consider leaving the ECHR.

Britain’s best politics newsletters

You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Comments

Join the debate for just £1 a month

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.

Already a subscriber? Log in