Nigel Farage – I’d pull UK out of ECHR immediately as PM to stop critical threat
The Reform UK leader has doubled down on the promise on the 10 year anniversary of the Brexit referendum.
Nigel Farage EXCLUSIVE: ‘We will leave the ECHR’
Nigel Farage has said the first thing he would do as prime minister if he won a general election would be to remove the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights. The Reform UK leader said it’s “it’s just so obvious” the country needs to leave the ECHR, allowing ministers to take action which would cut illegal migration.
Speaking exclusively to the Express, Mr Farage said it would also “re-establish trust” with voters. Asked what would be the first thing he would do if becomes Prime Minister, he said: “Leaving the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into British law under the Human Rights Act 1998. That’s the first thing I want to tell you.
“It absolutely has to be, because what it would do, not only is to give us the power to deport those that should not be here, but it might just re-establish some trust that voting actually counts for something.
Because one of my biggest worries about where we are as a country right now is if you begin to think that voting makes no difference because no one keeps their promises, and you lose faith in the democratic system, well then all you’re left with is disobedience, disorder, you know, and a very dangerous future.
“So re-establishing that trust in democracy and I think leaving ECHR, getting rid of the Human Rights Act would do that.”
His remarks came during a special episode of our weekday news show, the Daily Expresso, recorded in Mr Farage’s Clacton constituency to mark the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum today.
Mr Farage told presenter Mark Dolan that repeated governments have failed to seize on the benefits of Brexit, including staying in the ECHR.
Mark Dolan and Nigel Farage in an exclusive episode of the Daily Expresso (Image: STEVE FINN PHOTOGRAPHY)
He added: “We left the European Union, but we’ve been stuck with ECHR and I think it’s just so obvious to me that has to go.”
The ECHR has been heavily criticised by right wing politicians for its role in blocking the deportation of some asylum seekers from the UK and the Conservatives are also considering adopting a policy to leave the convention.
But the government has categorically ruled out leaving the ECHR while Labour is in power, saying the UK is committed to human rights and its international obligations.
Reform UK topped the polls for more than a year, triggering hopes in the party that he could become Prime Minister if there is a general election.
