The Conservatives will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if they win the next election, Kemi Badenoch has announced.
The announcement comes after a review by the Conservative party’s lead lawyer found staying in the ECHR blocks migration reform and leads to the persecution of military veterans.
Last year Badenoch said leaving the treaty would not be a “silver bullet” for tackling immigration, but on Friday argued the move was necessary to “protect our borders, our veterans, and our citizens”.
Labour said the Conservative leader had adopted “a policy she argued against” because she is “too weak to stand up to her own party in the face of Reform”.
The announcement on the eve of the party’s conference in Manchester will settle the party’s position following months of internal divisions.
The ECHR had become a focal point in the Conservative Party’s immigration debate, with senior figures arguing that its provisions have obstructed efforts to deport foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers.
Announcing plans to leave marks a sharp shift in Conservative policy and will likely become a central theme of the party’s election campaign.
It comes amid growing pressure from Reform UK, which has already pledged to leave the ECHR.
Badenoch said: “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.”
The announcement comes after detailed legal review led by shadow attorney general Lord Wolfson of Tredegar concluded that the ECHR placed “significant constraints” on the government.
The review, set up by Badenoch in June, tested how international law impacted five key Conservative policy proposals: deporting foreign criminals and illegal immigrants, protecting military veterans from legal action, prioritising British citizens in access to public services, ensuring prison sentences reflect parliamentary intent, and preventing courts using climate change laws to block planning reforms.
“In all the five policy areas, the ECHR places significant constraints,” Lord Wolfson found.
This week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government would look again at how international laws including the ECHR were interpreted by UK courts – to stop unsuccessful asylum seekers blocking their deportation on the grounds they could be sent to worse prisons or healthcare systems.
Sir Keir told the he did not want to “tear down” human rights laws, but said mass migration in recent years meant there needed to be a change.
Legal experts have warned leaving the ECHR would carry serious political and legal consequences.
Catherine Barnard, University of Cambridge professor of EU Law, has noted withdrawal would isolate the UK alongside Russia and risk breaching both the Good Friday Agreement and the UK-EU trade deal.
But Lord Wolfson’s nearly 200 page legal advice reportedly found that alternative domestic attempts to soften the impact of the ECHR rules would be ineffective.
He also said withdrawal would not breach the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement or the Windsor Framework.
A Labour Party spokesperson said the decision had been “forced on” Badenoch, and not been “thought through”.
“Badenoch now thinks she is both incapable of negotiating changes to the ECHR with our international partners, and a sufficiently accomplished diplomatic operator to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement.”
Conservative shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the ECHR had “enabled foreign criminals and illegal immigrants to stay in the UK”, adding: “Protecting our borders is non-negotiable.”
During previous debates on immigration, moderate conservatives have expressed concern about leaving the ECHR.
In 2023, ex-deputy prime minister Damian Green said leaving the ECHR was a “red line” for the One Nation Tories group he chaired.
More recently, Boris Johnson’s justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland said leaving the ECHR would be an act of folly – calling instead for reform from within.
A Reform UK spokesman said “nobody trusts a single word” the Conservatives said.
“The Conservatives had 14 years in government to leave the ECHR. Since then, it’s taken them 14 months to even decide what their policy is,” the spokesman said.
“The Conservative Party is finished.”