Kemi Badenoch announces decision to leave the ECHR

Today [Saturday 4^th October 2025] Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, has announced that the next Conservative Government will leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).  

In June this year, the Leader of the Opposition commissioned a review into the pervasive system of lawfare in this country – the use of legal systems and challenges to further political, activist agendas.  

This has frustrated this country's efforts to secure its borders and deport those with no right to be here, and led to protracted prosecutions of our veterans. Badenoch appointed eminent King's Counsel and Shadow Attorney General Lord Wolfson of Tredegar to advise on our membership of the ECHR as part of this.  

He was asked to provide legal advice on five key policy areas and specifically whether the British government can lawfully implement them while a member of the ECHR: 

• First, could we take back control of our asylum system and lawfully remove foreign criminals and illegal immigrants to their home country or a third country such as Rwanda? 
• Second, could we stop our veterans being endlessly pursued by vexatious legal attacks, and make sure our military can fight a future war without one hand tied behind their backs? 
• Third, could we put British citizens first when it comes to social housing and public services because we believe that charity begins at home and those who have paid in should come first? 
• Fourth, could we make sure prison sentences actually reflect Parliament's intentions?  
• And fifth, could we stop courts treating climate change as a human right and allowing endless legal challenges to frustrate the changes we need to make to our planning system? 

Lord Wolfson has now concluded his advice and presented it to the Leader of the Opposition. He found that in all the five policy areas, the ECHR places significant constraints on the Government's ability to address the key issue. When it comes to the removal of illegal immigrants and protecting veterans, ECHR membership makes it impossible to control our sovereign borders.    

In the areas of public services, prison sentences and climate change, the necessary changes to our laws would be subject to the sort of debilitating legal challenges that lead to government policies getting delayed and ultimately killed in the courts.  
 
Lord Wolfson's advice also indicates that alternative options, such as re-negotiation, derogation or repealing only the Human Rights Act, are either unrealistic or ineffective. 

In light of this, Kemi Badenoch has now decided to pledge withdrawal from the Convention as Conservative Party policy – taking a political decision, backed by the Shadow Cabinet, to restore the primacy and sovereignty of Parliament and the laws it enacts.  

Taking this step will ensure that we can take back control of our asylum system and deport foreign criminals and illegal immigrants.  

It will allow us to stop the endless pursuit of veterans and make sure our military can fight future wars without one hand tied behind their backs.  

Withdrawing will enable us to put British citizens first when it comes to social housing and public services.  

It will allow the government to make sure prison sentences properly reflect the will of Parliament.  

And it will ensure that courts do not treat climate change as a human right. 

Unlike Reform UK, who have made slapdash announcements with no consideration of the implications and no plan to deliver behind them, the Conservatives have done the serious work to explore the legal and practical considerations necessary to leave the ECHR in an orderly manner.  

Lord Wolfson has advised that leaving the ECHR is compatible with the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and the Windsor Framework. 

This announcement is just the latest step in the Conservatives plans to deliver stronger borders and a stronger economy - with more announcements to come on how the Conservatives will utilise the legal freedoms outside of the ECHR.  

Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, said: 

“It is time for Britain to leave the ECHR. I have not come to this decision lightly, but it is clear that it is necessary to protect our borders, our veterans, and our citizens. 

“I have always been clear that we should leave the ECHR, if necessary, but unlike other parties we have done the serious work to develop a plan to do so – backed by legal advice from a distinguished King's Counsel.  

“Our country, and our Parliament, must be sovereign. This step will ensure that the next Conservative Government will enact the policies the British people rightly expect: controlling our borders and strengthening our economy.” 

Chris Philp MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said: 

“The ECHR started as a noble endeavour. But over the years the ECHR has been stretched by the courts to the point it is enabling foreign criminals and illegal immigrants stay in the UK.   

“I believe protecting our borders is non-negotiable.  Yet we found in Government, and Lord Wolfson has now confirmed, that we cannot properly protect our borders in the ECHR.  

“The public expects that when that when they elect a Government to do something, they do it.  Anything else undermines democracy, and sadly that is what the ECHR is now doing.” 

ENDS 

Notes to Editors 

Lord Wolfson KC's full letter to Kemi Badenoch MP is below:  

“I attach to this letter my formal legal Advice to you on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Convention on Human Rights and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights. The document is detailed, and runs to just under 200 pages with some 435 footnotes and citations. 

As you will see from the Executive Summary, my overall view and advice is that should you wish to take the decision that it be Conservative Party policy that the UK should withdraw from the ECHR, such a policy would be perfectly possible both legally and practically. In fact, it is clear from my detailed analysis that under each of the areas which you asked me to consider, the UK's ability to achieve the policy goals and objectives you set out will be made substantially easier by our withdrawal from the ECHR.  

In particular, when it comes to control of our sovereign borders, preventing our military veterans from being pursued indefinitely, ensuring prison sentences are applied rigorously for serious crimes, stopping disruptive protests, or placing blanket restrictions on foreign nationals in terms of social housing and benefits, the only way such positions are feasible would be to leave the ECHR. Importantly, leaving the ECHR would be a necessary, although not always a sufficient, step: as explained in the Advice, there will be other legal issues to be considered in different contexts. 

The UK's withdrawal from (“denunciation of”) the ECHR is a political and policy decision for you and the Shadow Cabinet; as you know, my role is to provide legal advice. Such a decision will not be a panacea to all the issues that have arisen in recent years, and other obstacles to achieving the desired policy objectives will remain, but it is clear that should you wish to achieve a policy goal of, for example, the UK government having full control over its own borders , then withdrawal from the ECHR is the only feasible option.  

Lastly, it bears mentioning that the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement, and the Windsor Framework Agreement are not legal barriers to leaving the ECHR. However, they do present political and other issues, which I have explained in my Advice. I have also set out, at a high level,  a number of options in terms of replacing (or not) the rights set out in the ECHR, and also the Human Rights Act 1998; I should be happy to consider those matters in more detail once you and the Shadow Cabinet have reached a decision on the headline policy question of the UK's membership of the ECHR. 

Please let me know if I can assist in any other way.”