ECHR exit ‘against Britain’s national interest’
Britain’s attorney general has told a House of Lords committee that leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) would undo what he described as “progress” to stop small-boat crossings.
The comments from Lord Hermer came in his debut appearance before the House of Lords constitution committee, according to the Law Society Gazette of England and Wales.
Earlier this month, Reform UK politicians Arron Banks said that leaving the ECHR would be part of his party’s plan to sweep away the Blair-era infrastructure of legal regulation.
Starmer ‘crystal clear’
The attorney general, however, told the committee that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was “crystal clear” that Britain would not be leaving the convention.
“There are a number of reasons for that but at the heart of it is it would be completely contrary to the national interest were we to do so,” Hermer said.
He said that the phenomenon faced with irregular migration was not unique to Britain, adding that the solutions to the problem “will not be met simply domestically, in splendid isolation to our allies”.
To address small-boat crossings, Hermer said that Britain needed to co-operate with “friends and partners” in Europe.
“We are only going to be able to do that within the immigration and asylum context if we are compliant with the ECHR,” he stated.
Agreements
Hermer said that since the Labour government came into power, Britain had reached agreements with “real, practical impact” to address small-boat crossings.
The committee heard that agreements had been made with France dealing with boats in French territorial waters, while Germany had agreed to amend its domestic law to deal with the problem of transport of boat materials through Germany to the beaches in France.
“Now it is inconceivable that our partners would have entered into those agreements if we were not members of the Council of Europe, if we were not signed up to the ECHR,” Hermer said.
“If we leave, those deals go. No one’s going to enter agreements with us if we’re not complying with the same standards across the immigration and asylum system,” he added.