5 days ago
Badenoch to launch review examining whether UK should pull out of ECHR
Kemi Badenoch is expected to set up a review that will look into whether the UK should withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.
The commission will examine whether Britain should pull out of a series of agreements, it is understood.
It comes ahead of a speech Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch is expected to make on Friday.
The ECHR was a dividing issue in last year's Conservative leadership election, with Mrs Badenoch's rival Robert Jenrick championing the idea that Britain should pull out.
Mrs Badenoch has stopped short of calling for the UK to leave, but in February she suggested that the UK would 'probably' have to withdraw from the convention if it stops the country from doing 'what is right'.
She told a London event: 'When it comes to the ECHR, I have always been very clear that the ECHR should not stop us from doing what is right for the people of this country and what is right in our national interest.
'And if it continues to do so, at some point we will probably have to leave.
'What I have not agreed with is deciding that we should leave without having a plan for what that looks like and how to do so in a way that makes sense.'
The Convention's Article 8 – a right to a family life – has been notably used by foreign criminals to avoid deportation from the UK.
The Government's immigration white paper released last month promised legislation to 'strengthen the public interest test to make it clear that Parliament needs to be able to control our country's borders and take back control over who comes to, and stays in the UK'.
Sir Keir Starmer said at the time that the 'the right balance' needed to be made between individual rights and 'the national interest'.
