Reform UK and the ECHR

In their document Operation Restoring Justice, which was published in August 2025, Reform UK indicated that should they be elected as the next government that they will undertake extensive legislation to implement their mass deportation plans.  This includes their stated intention to leave the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The ECHR was drafted by the British Lawyer Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, who had previously prosecuted war criminals at the Nuremburg trials.  In the aftermath of The Second World War, and with the fuller knowledge of the horror of the Holocaust, Winston Churchill was a staunch advocate of the development of the ECHR. The ECHR was according to Liberty

“an attempt to protect people from the state, make sure the atrocities committed would never be repeated, and safeguard fundamental rights”.

For the reasons mentioned above the UK was the first country to ratify the convention.

Our fundamental human rights were guaranteed in law for the first time as the UK signed the convention in 1951 and our rights been protected in respect of things like

“torture, killing and slavery, assembly, religion, privacy and much more” (Liberty.)

The ECHR was intended to be a backstop, to prevent us from, at least in part, sending vulnerable people to their deaths as we did to the Jews when we turned them away in the 1930’s and 1940’s.  (Zoe Gardner)

If we reflect for a moment on the monumental self harm inflicted by Brexit, by leaving the EU, the social, political, financial damage done to us as individuals and as a society, as well as to the impact of our standing in the world, are we really going to allow the people who brought us that to remove our rights, to have our backstop removed? It is OUR BACKSTOP.

Reform UK in their document Operation Restoring Justice, make it very clear that they intend to remove us from the ECHR. This isn’t something that they even consider should be put to a referendum, they will put it in their manifesto as a way to “stop the boats” or prevent “illegal immigrants” being granted the right to appeal.  This would not only remove the rights of asylum seekers though, but it would also remove the rights of all of us. The manifesto will talk about taking back control, as if this time they know what they are talking about. Whereas in fact they would be removing our independent arbiter, the body put in place to ensure that never again are populations subject to the horror of the holocaust by Nazi’s, fascists or others.

The ECHR has only found against the UK 13 times in “removal cases” since 1980. The difference that it would make in managing immigration is minimal. So what is it for?

The ECHR is also extremely important for peace in Northern Ireland.

“The ECHR is embedded within the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. It is a legal requirement of the UK government under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement for the ECHR to apply to Northern Ireland.” (UK in a Changing Europe)

Further, ECHR rights were enshrined into British law in the form of the Human Rights Act 1998, Reform UK have also indicated intent to repeal this legislation and to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement.  This should fill you with dread, and if you grew up watching the news of or indeed living through “The Troubles” it would. However, to be clear empathy may be required too.

We also need to think about the parallels between Reform UK taking the UK out of the ECHR and ICE (Immigration, Customs and Enforcement). An AI search tells us that

“both ICE and Reform UK have a shared political agenda of aggressive immigration enforcement”

So can we expect to have our citizens killed for trying to protect their neighbours, and our five year olds kidnapped? The intention of Reform UK in removing us from the ECHR is to implement rapid deportation and removal, and to do this by removing our rights and legal protections.