Tory Reform Group

3rd Sep 2023

The Tory Reform Group’s (“TRG”) position on the ECHR is the same as the overwhelming majority of Conservative MPs and the British voters, that the UK must under no circumstances consider leaving the ECHR nor derogate from the human rights it underpins for the sake of the Rwanda policy.

TRG has existed for nearly 50 years to bring together those who believe in the values, and safeguard the principles, of One Nation Conservatism and provide a home for One Nation members and friends of the Conservative Party. Being the One Nation voice comes with responsibility: namely a responsibility to speak up when we fear that these One Nation principles are under threat.

We urge the Prime Minister to publicly commit to the UK remaining a party to the ECHR, and we call on Conservative MPs to make clear they would not support our withdrawal from the ECHR. 

A Historic Mistake

Leaving the ECHR would be a historic mistake because it would:

• Damage the Northern Ireland Peace process, by breaching the Good Friday Agreement;

• Damage our ability to bring dangerous criminals to justice by collapsing security cooperation with the European Union; 

• Damage relations with our democratic allies and our trustworthiness on the world stage; 

• Damage our ability to promote human rights internationally, by grouping us with Belarus and Russia as the only non-members in Europe; and

• Damage the Conservative Party’s reputation as a party that respects the rule of law, international agreements and multilateral institutions

Furthermore, we note that:

• There are a range of options for stopping the illegal channel crossings while remaining in the ECHR, including rewriting the Rwanda agreement, seeking similar agreements with safer countries, or introducing digital ID;

• Polling shows that pledging to leave the ECHR would make voters less likely to vote Conservative, by a margin of 41% to 26%;

• The ECtHR rarely finds against the UK, with a rate of just 2% cases finding violations in 2021;

• A number of positive changes to UK law have been made following cases in the ECtHR, including decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland; and

• The bar for derogating from articles in the ECHR is very high, and wanting to remove asylum seekers is unlikely to pass this bar.

To read the our “UK Membership of the European Convention on Human Rights” policy statement, head to the Publications page.
My thanks to our Board for all their work on this, including for The Telegraph article “Rishi Sunak faces Tory party split over withdrawal from ECHR”.
Siobhan, TRG National Chair