Paul Nowak Column: ‘The Left has a political and moral duty to defend the ECHR’

The Conservatives have now confirmed they want Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Kemi Badenoch’s weekend announcement has been years in the making, but we must be clear about what it means.

The populist right want to rip up protections for ordinary people and distract from the real crises they’ve created.

Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Nigel Farage are locked in a grotesque arms race – each trying to outdo the other with ever more xenophobic, headline-chasing policies.

Just like during the EU referendum they’re peddling a false promise – that leaving the ECHR will somehow solve problems caused by their own political failure.

READ MORE: What has the European Convention on Human Rights ever done for us?

Let’s be crystal clear. Leaving won’t stop the boats. It won’t speed up asylum claims. It won’t create safe routes or a fairer system.

What it will do is strip away rights working people rely on and wreck vital cooperation with France and others tackling smuggling gangs and dangerous crossings.

It will leave the UK in the company of Russia and Belarus – the only countries in Europe outside the Convention. That’s not strength. That’s a recipe for global isolation and domestic chaos.

The ECHR isn’t a foreign imposition. It was drafted by British lawyers after the Second World War. 

It guarantees basic protections – freedoms that unions and workers have fought for over generations; whether it’s freedom of association, protection from discrimination, the right to privacy or the ban on forced labour. 

These aren’t abstract or a ‘nice-to-have’. They matter in real workplaces.

Take the case of Fiona Mercer. Fiona, a care worker and union rep, was punished for taking lawful strike action. UK law didn’t protect her. But the ECHR did and the Supreme Court agreed her right to strike had been abused.

That’s what’s at stake here.

The Tories used to claim to be the party of law and order. But in their desperation to ape Reform they now want to shred legal principles and undermine our democracy.

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Let’s not pretend this is about migration. This is a political stunt – a smokescreen for the Tories’ failure to tackle the cost of living crisis, for their appalling record on public services and for their manifest failure to deliver for working families.

Instead of looking to fix the mess they created they are scapegoating migrants, trade unions and international law.

The populist right want to roll back rights. We can’t let them.

The Left, including Labour, has a duty – not just political, but moral – to defend the ECHR. It’s a fight for everyone who believes in dignity, fairness and accountability.

This isn’t just about the ECHR. It’s about what kind of country we want to be.

The TUC will always stand up for human rights, for workers’ rights and for the rule of law. And we call on every MP that claims to believe in democracy to do the same.

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