The ECHR is flawed, but be warned: it would be unwise to entrust human rights to an ‘elective dictatorship’ |

Brexit removed many checks and balances from the UK government. That’s why leaving the European convention on human rights would be a huge risk

‘H

umbug”, and “a half-baked scheme to be administered by an unknown court”. Nigel Farage or Robert Jenrick attacking the European convention on human rights (ECHR)? No – Herbert Morrison, leader of the Commons, and William Jowitt, lord chancellor in Clement Attlee’s postwar Labour government, respectively, both arguing that Britain should not accede to the convention.

Labour was suspicious, fearing that it would prevent nationalisation. It did not. Today, Conservatives and Reform UK fear that it will frustrate immigration control. It need not.

Denmark and Sweden have recently taken draconian measures to restrict immigration without falling foul of the ECHR. The Danish Social Democrats have reduced asylum claims to their lowest level for 40 years. In Sweden, a government of the right has seen a 23% fall in asylum applications between 2023 and 2024.