Quit ECHR, it cannot be reformed says top Tory

BRITAIN should leave the European Convention on Human Rights because there are “no conceivable reforms” that would fix its fundamental flaws, a former Cabinet minister has warned.

- BY AARON NEWBURY

Lord Lilley, who served under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, said the ECHR grants unelected judges the “essentially political tasks” of creating new laws and instructing parliament on how to balance different rights, inevitably leading to politicising the judiciary.

His damning assessment comes as calls grow for the UK to withdraw from the convention over concerns that it undermines British sovereignty and prevents the elected government from controlling the country’s borders.

The Tory peer said the only solution is to return to the traditional British position where “no law can be made without debate, amendment and approval of parliament accountable to voters”.

He added: “The role of the courts is to apply those laws impartially.

“Other Commonwealth dominions have retained that process and upheld the highest standards of freedom and human rights without an international court telling them what to do.” Lord Lilley said that former prime ministers Clement Attlee and Winston Churchill “rightly refused to give the ECHR jurisdiction in the UK because they recognised that it would turn our constitution upside down”.