Johnson is shredding UK's trust abroad, says diplomat

One of the UK's most respected diplomats has accused Boris Johnson of planning three separate breaches of international law, warning that trust in the UK abroad is being shredded.

- ROB MERRICK

Kim Darroch, a former national security adviser and US ambassador, has attacked plans to neuter commitments to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), arguing they will violate the Good Friday Agreement.

In an interview with The Independent, he said the threat sits alongside moves to tear up the Brexit deal for Northern Ireland and to deport refugees to Rwanda, breaking the Geneva Convention.

"I think you can argue that this government is breaching international law in three areas," Lord Darroch argued.

Seizing on Dominic Raab's plans to allow the UK to ignore ECHR rulings, the crossbench peer warned: "The ECHR is enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement as a guarantee of the rights of all individuals in Northern Ireland.

"Now they want to effectively disapply, by domestic law, some parts of the ECHR, and that looks to me to be in danger of breaching our commitments in the Good Friday Agreement".

Pointing to the damage to the UK's reputation abroad, Lord Darroch added: "Everything I pick up from people in the Brussels institutions is that trust in the British government has broken down."