Kemi Badenoch is expected to announce a plan this weekend to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if the Conservatives win the next election. This move comes as the party attempts to halt a haemorrhaging of support to Reform UK.
Political opponents are likely to seize on the announcement as evidence that the Tories have lurched to the right. Currently, Russia and Belarus are the only other European countries that have opted out of the ECHR, which raises concerns that the Conservatives could lose support from the political centre.
The Tory leader’s stance has hardened since last autumn. At that time, Badenoch said leaving the treaty would not be a silver bullet for tackling immigration. However, in February, she stated that the UK would probably have to leave if the treaty prevented the government from acting in the national interest.
Despite private concerns from One Nation Conservatives that such a decision could force out moderates within the party, Badenoch is understood to have signed off on the plans to leave the international agreement. She is now expected to announce the Conservatives’ exit strategy from the ECHR during a speech at the party’s Manchester conference on Sunday, following a shadow cabinet meeting on the decision scheduled for Friday.
In June, Badenoch set up a commission to examine whether the UK should withdraw from a series of international legal agreements, including the ECHR and the refugee convention. The commission is also exploring the possibility of overturning some domestic legislation, such as the Climate Change Act and the Equality Act.
Centrist Tory MPs have been keeping their concerns private to avoid worsening the party’s dire poll ratings. One MP said, “Given where we are, I’m not speaking out against it,” while another added that it was difficult to argue against the move given the party’s circumstances.
Interestingly, several Tories who previously spoke out against leaving the ECHR — warning about potential impacts on the Good Friday Agreement and the UK’s international reputation — now appear to have softened their stance.
“The ECHR is failing us all. Europe needs a new convention on asylum and immigration to cope with the world of 2025, which is very different from the world of 1945,” one MP commented. “Starmer needs to be leading the charge or he’ll lose. People outside the beltway have had enough.”
Another Tory MP added, “Things have changed. When people perceive international agreements as stopping governments from doing things they voted them in for, democracy comes first.” A third said, “The world has moved on in respect of the ECHR and will have moved even more by the next general election.”
The ECHR, established in 1950, sets out the rights and freedoms people are entitled to in the 46 signatory countries of the Council of Europe. It is a central part of UK human rights law and has been used to halt attempts to deport individuals deemed to be in the UK illegally. Critics have focused their concerns on Article 3, which protects against inhuman or degrading treatment, and Article 8, which helps protect the right to private and family life.
Individuals and countries can make an application to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg — not to be confused with the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg — but only if they have exhausted all domestic legal routes.
During the Conservative leadership election, the ECHR became a dividing line between Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, who failed to become leader. Badenoch argued that leaving the ECHR would not solve the UK’s problems, whereas Jenrick said the party would die if it argued to stay in.
Jenrick, now the shadow justice secretary, stated last week that prospective Conservative candidates should either support leaving the ECHR or stand down. Addressing a meeting of the Thatcherite Bruges Group thinktank, he said: “I would get them to sign a contract to say they actually stand for Conservative values. I would get them to say you have got to leave the ECHR, and if you don’t want to do that, don’t stand as a Conservative.”
Moderate Conservatives have expressed concern over Jenrick’s words. A former Tory minister described the move as “effectively setting an ideological purity test,” calling it a dangerous route for any political party. “It is more sensible to expand your support rather than contract it,” they added.
Meanwhile, Labour has announced plans to attempt to restrict people’s use of the ECHR to fight deportation. Keir Starmer said on Monday that he was ready to change the way the ECHR is applied in the UK to enable the government to deport more asylum seekers whose claims have been refused, as well as foreign criminals who claim they are victims of torture.
He stated that the government needed to look again at the interpretation of Articles 3 and 8 of the convention, which protect individuals against breaches of their family life and protect them from torture or inhuman treatment if removed back to their home country.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/02/kemi-badenoch-expected-to-announce-plan-to-leave-echr
