Arya News - Sir Keir Starmer’s efforts to reform the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) risk repeating Lord Cameron’s Brexit mistakes.
Sir Keir Starmer’s efforts to reform the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) risk repeating Lord Cameron’s Brexit mistakes.
Britain has joined forces with 26 other members of the Council of Europe in demanding changes to the ECHR to protect national security.
They argue it is no longer fit for purpose in the modern world of people-smuggling and that failure to act will mean the public losing confidence in the ECHR and human rights.
But the Government is not insisting that the 75-year-old treaty be rewritten to make it easier to deport foreign criminals and return failed asylum seekers .
Instead, it wants guarantees that any new domestic legislation introduced to tackle migration does not break the ECHR and face legal challenges.
Rewriting the ECHR, which is put into effect in British law with the Human Rights Act, could take years of negotiations.
Moves to give UK judges the blessing to be tougher in their interpretation of rules on migrants’ family ties and the prevention of torture could come as soon as May.
The strategy is pragmatic, but politically tone deaf.
Lord Cameron’s doomed efforts
It is also reminiscent of Lord Cameron’s doomed efforts to reform the EU before the Brexit referendum in 2016. The then-prime minister pinned his hopes on a reform deal with the EU to snooker the Leave campaign before the vote.
But the agreement, long on language but light on legally enforceable changes, failed to convince Brexit-backing Conservatives.
Lord Cameron did not get everything he wanted or promised in his manifesto, but got some concessions. They included an exemption for the UK from the EU treaty commitment to “ever closer political union with the bloc”.
He secured an emergency brake on EU migrants claiming full benefits in Britain until they had been in the country for four years. There were guarantees that the UK would not be on the hook for eurozone bailouts.
The deal did not win round two Tory stars of the Leave Campaign. Boris Johnson branded it “thin gruel”. Michael Gove said that, without a rewriting of the EU’s treaties, it was not legally binding, and some experts agreed it could be overruled by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Lord Cameron (right) and Boris Johnson (left) played central, yet opposing, roles in the Brexit saga - Jack Taylor/Getty Images
Lord Cameron insisted they were hard-won, legally binding concessions after reopening the treaties was rebuffed by EU leaders wary of opening a Pandora’s box of long negotiations.
The reform deal was dead on arrival and would end as a campaign footnote. Most importantly, it failed to convince British voters who backed Brexit in a vote that led to Lord Cameron’s resignation.
In 2025, Sir Keir Starmer has staked his credibility on securing reforms from Europe – this time from the older and bigger human rights watchdog.
On Wednesday, justice ministers from the 46 members of the Council of Europe gathered in Strasbourg, including David Lammy , the Deputy Prime Minister, who was accompanied by Lord Hermer, the Attorney General.
The 27 states had demanded substantive changes to ensure rules to protect family ties, prevent torture and return deals with countries of origin did not stop deportations of migrants and foreign criminals or Rwanda-style deals with other countries.
The 27 states demanded substantive changes to ensure rules did not stop Rwanda-style deals with other countries - Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
The summit ended with vague conclusions, promising a future recommendation on tackling people smuggling and a political declaration, which would reaffirm member countries’ commitment to the ECHR.
It is a first and rare step but unless progress is made, the summit will be dismissed as nothing more than talks about talks.
Sir Keir, a former human rights lawyer, has made clear that the UK will never leave the ECHR under his Government, which arguably weakens his hand in negotiations.
But he has also lined Britain up behind anti-migrant Italy and Denmark to “stop the boats” and neuter the threat of the poll-topping Nigel Farage.
France and Germany have not, however, rallied to the cause championed by the 27.
If a fudge is delivered in May, it won’t end the calls to “Brexit” the Council of Europe from the Conservatives and Reform before the next election. Both back leaving the ECHR.
Even a tangible overhaul of the legal text of the convention, rather than documents dancing around it, might not convince Kemi Badenoch’s Tories.
In the hours after the summit, Robert Jenrick , the shadow chancellor, said the attempts to reform it were as doomed as Lord Cameron’s quixotic attempt more than nine years ago.
‘Living instrument’
Alain Berset, the Council of Europe’s secretary-general, has called the ECHR a “living instrument” that can adapt but dodged questions over whether it needed to be rewritten or if the political declaration and recommendation would suffice.
He rejected comparisons to Brexit and insisted that Strasbourg judges were “not from Mars” and realised the modern challenges of illegal migration.
There are key differences to Brexit. Britain is not alone in demanding change and the Council of Europe is not the EU, despite a ponderousness that means reforms can take years.
When the ECHR guarantees come, they have to be convincing or the failure to wrest real reforms from Europe will be a stick to beat Sir Keir with until the next election.
The lessons of Brexit should be instructive for the Prime Minister, unless he wants to share Lord Cameron’s fate.
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