Badenoch launches review into possible ECHR exit

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is to set up a commission to examine whether the UK should withdraw from a series of international legal agreements and overturn some domestic legislation which she fears may be binding the hands of British governments.

Among the agreements being looked into is the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Badenoch is expected to appoint Tory peer and former justice minister Lord Wolfson of Tredegar to chair the commission, which is expected to report by autumn, when the party meets for its annual conference.

Last month, the government announced plans to bring forward legislation to "clarify" the extent to which the ECHR would impact UK immigration cases.

The ECHR was established in 1950 and sets out the rights and freedoms people are entitled to in the 46 signatory countries.

The treaty is a central part of UK human rights law and has been used to halt attempts to deport migrants who are deemed to be in the UK illegally.

The treaty was also recently cited in a case that allowed a Palestinian family the right to live in the UK, after they originally applied through a scheme designed for Ukrainians.

During the Conservative leadership election, the ECHR became a key dividing line between candidates, with Badenoch telling her party leaving the treaty would not be a "silver bullet" to tackling immigration.

Her nearest rival Robert Jenrick, now shadow justice secretary, argued his party would "die' unless it left the ECHR.

But in February, Badenoch hardened her stance, claiming the UK would "probably have to leave" if the treaty continued to stop the government acting in the country's national interest.

The impact of the ECHR on asylum claims and the deportation of foreign criminals will be examined as part of the Wolfson review, as will the Refugee Convention.

Domestic law such as the Climate Change Act, the Equality Act and the Human Rights Act are also likely to be looked at.

The party leadership is worried about what is seen as a creeping sense of "lawfare", which senior figures believe contributes to a feeling of stasis and a lack of ability for governments to make substantive changes.

Last month when the government set out its plans for tackling illegal immigration in a White Paper, ministers said they would bring forward legislation to "make it clear that Parliament needs to be able to control our borders and take back control on who comes to and stays in the UK".

The White Paper specifically referred to Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to a family life, and said there was a need to "strike a balance between individual family rights and the wider public interest".

Badenoch will set out her plans in a speech on Friday, just over a month on from local elections in England where the Conservatives were crushed – and a series of opinion polls where support for the party had tumbled into the teens.

The Tories secured 24% of the vote in last year's general election, when they won the fewest seats in their history.

There is growing concern within the party about the resilience of support for Reform UK and the existential threat this poses to the Conservatives.

"It is a make or break summer," one former Conservative cabinet minister told me.

"We are a resilient brand but we have to stay alive. And that's far from certain at the moment."

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.