Public confidence in the rule of law is “fraying”, and public trust in the European Court of Human Rights is “eroding” because it “too often protects those who break the rules, rather than those who follow them”.
These are not my words — but those of Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, speaking at the Council of Europe this week.
Labour’s Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, is also now talking about tightening human rights laws to enable the deportation of foreign offenders.
This new tone is all the more extraordinary when you consider that just 18 months ago, senior Labour figures voted against my Private Members’ Bill — a proposal designed to prevent foreign judges in Strasbourg from blocking the removal of foreign national offenders and failed asylum seekers.
When I introduced my Bill in December 2022, it was intended to uphold British law and sovereignty, allowing us to ignore last-minute ECHR interventions, such as the anonymous Rule 39 order that grounded the first scheduled Rwanda flight.
Labour MPs—including Sir Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, and Shabana Mahmood herself—voted it down.
Now, they are echoing arguments strikingly similar to those they once dismissed.
Labour’s ECHR U-turn proves why Britain must leave NOW. We face a very clear choice - Jonathan Gullis
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Yes, the ECHR once served a purpose. But today, it has overreached—blocking deportations, shielding serious criminals, and increasingly meddling in national policy.
Other European nations are also waking up. Nine countries, including Austria, Belgium, Poland, and Italy, have called for reform after ECHR rulings prevented them from removing illegal migrants.
But tinkering won’t do. Labour’s U-turn only reinforces what I have long argued: the ECHR is now incompatible with effective border control and democratic sovereignty.
Ministers talk tough but still insist Britain will remain bound by the Convention—however flawed or obstructive it becomes. That’s not authentic leadership—it’s rhetoric without resolve.
Britain is a proud common law country. Fundamental rights such as a fair trial, freedom from arbitrary detention, and property rights have been safeguarded by our legal system for centuries. We do not need foreign judges in Strasbourg to protect these liberties.
British rights should be protected by British courts, with laws written by our Parliament, accountable to British voters. The time for equivocation has passed.
Every day we delay leaving the ECHR, public confidence erodes further, and dangerous individuals take advantage of the system.
As a nation, we face a clear choice: Who governs Britain—our Parliament and courts, or foreign judges in Strasbourg? I know where I stand. Britain must leave the ECHR now—to safeguard our democracy, enforce our laws, and protect the law-abiding majority. It’s time to finish the job and reclaim control once and for all.
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