UK 'must leave European Convention on Human Rights' to end migration crisis

The UK must quit the European Convention on Human Rights to protect democracy and allow "good government", according to a major new study backed by former Justice Secretary Michael Gove. Judges are preventing the UK from ending the "crisis" of illegal immigration, but are also dictating climate change policy and putting British soldiers at risk of legal action, the report by think tank Policy Exchange said.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to confirm at her party's conference this weekend that a Tory Government would take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), following a review led by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, the shadow attorney-general.

Policy Exchange also called on the UK to repeal the Human Rights Act, which allows the ECHR to be enforced in British courts. Rather than allowing UK judges to interpret the Convention themselves, it has forced UK judges to take into account rulings made by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the study warned.

The report said the ECHR "distorts parliamentary democracy, disables good government, and departs from the ideal of the rule of law".

Lord Gove said; "It has been twenty-five years now since the Human Rights Act came into force. The governments that held office from 2010 failed properly to grip the problem of human rights law.

"If any future government, of whatever complexion, is to fare better, it must heed the advice of this excellent paper."

The findings were also backed by Former justice minister Lord Faulks KC, who said that recent controversies had focused on immigration but the ECHR could also prevent the UK dealing with other issues. He said: "What is becoming increasingly clear is that the Humran Rights Act and our membership of the ECHR is seriously inhibiting the Government's freedom to respond to what is regarded by many as the 'emergency' of illegal migration. This is the current issue, but there will be others as long as we retain the current legal architecture for the protection of human rights."

Rulings that have provoked outrage include a Brazilian who was convicted in his home country of repeatedly raping a five-year-old girl but fled to the UK. Attempts to return him to Brazil were blocked when a judge said it would contravene his rights under article 3 of the ECHR, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment.

The European Court of Human Rights also ruled in 2024 that the Swiss Government's climate policies violated the right to a private and family life.

And Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has claimed that UK special forces are "killing rather than capturing" terrorists because they fear Britain's enemies would be set free under the ECHR.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vowed last year that the UK "will never withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights". This week he said the Government wants to change how international law is interpreted, but the Policy Exchange Paper points out that previous efforts to reform the way the ECHR works have failed.