A “department of believers” with civil servants backing Britain’s exit from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) would be set up by a Reform government, the party’s deputy leader has said. Richard Tice said Reform would incorporate Border Force within the Home Office, staffing it with people who “believe in the cause of secure borders”.
“I want people who are going to enact and be completely committed to ensuring the will of the people,” he said at a Prosperity Institute event on Thursday. He was joined by the former Tory home secretary Suella Braverman, who promoted her recent report on how the UK could quit the ECHR. Her paper suggests revising the Good Friday Agreement to remove references to the ECHR, addressing what many critics see as the main obstacle to leaving the convention. Tice said that’s a “very serious, diligent, brilliant approach”.
According to Keir Starmer, it would be a “profound mistake” to withdraw from the ECHR, ruling out leaving the treaty. Starmer’s response followed a question from the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who said: “The leader of the Conservative Party and the leader of Reform want to join Russia and Vladimir Putin by withdrawing from the convention. Will the Prime Minister categorically rule out withdrawing from the ECHR, or suspending it, or watering down our rights in any way?”
But for Reform, leaving the ECHR is key to realising its plan to deport 600,000 illegal migrants without legal hurdles. By disapplying the international laws and treaties blocking their removal, legislation would place a duty on the Home Secretary to arrest, detain and deport all illegal migrants. Tice added Reform was drafting legislation using its own lawyers before the general election.
He said the party is also working on plans to scrap the current system of appointing judges, which is handled independently by a judicial commission. Under the proposal, appointments would revert to the pre-2006 system, with ministers making the decisions.
He is confident there would be no shortage of people willing to implement the party’s plans, saying Reform is “delightfully deluged with incredibly competent people from a variety of walks of life with great CVs, great track records.”