STORY
Senior Conservative figures have warned that leaving the European Convention on Human Rights would risk damaging UK national security and weakening cooperation with European partners.
The warning came in a report by the Conservative European Forum, with figures including former justice secretaries and law officers arguing that withdrawal from the convention would complicate extradition, policing and migration cooperation. The intervention comes as Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch faces pressure from Reform UK and some in her own party to adopt a harder line on the ECHR.
Supporters of withdrawal argue that it would give Parliament and the courts greater freedom over migration and asylum policy. The report’s authors instead called for reform of the convention system, warning that an abrupt departure could create legal and diplomatic consequences, including for the Good Friday Agreement and wider European security cooperation.