Sir Nick Clegg backs reforming 'outdated' ECHR after government brands rules 'out of step with common sense'
Former Deputy Prime Minister Sir Nick Clegg has backed calls to reform parts of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), as opposition to the international treaty grows.
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The government says it is committed to the ECHR but the Justice Secretary recently admitted that public trust is beginning to erode as its application “feels out of step with common sense”.
While figures including Reform UK’s Nigel Farage have called for Britain to pull out of the convention entirely, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats has added his voice to the growing camp calling for reform.
Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Sir Nick said he would look “quite aggressively” at narrowing certain provisions with the ECHR.
"I think how some of the provisions of the ECHR [work] - Articles 3 and 8 - I think we definitely need to look at that narrowing that,” he said.
Sir Nick added: “No doubt to the chagrin of some of my Lib Dem colleagues, I would actually look quite aggressively at that.
“I think that whole kind of doctrine was applied at a different time. So you have to get on top of that.”
It comes as many foreign offenders have been exploiting Article 8 - the right to private and family life – to avoid deportation.
Article 3 prohibits “in absolute terms, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, irrespective of the victim's conduct”.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in June the ECHR needs reform as the “values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law – once widely assumed – now face distortion, doubt, even hostility.”
Speaking to the Committee of Ministers in Strasbourg, she said: “Across Europe, public confidence in the rule of law is fraying.
“There is a growing perception – sometimes mistaken, sometimes grounded in reality – that human rights are no longer a shield for the vulnerable, but a tool for criminals to avoid responsibility. That the law too often protects those who break the rules, rather than those who follow them.
“This tension is not new. The Convention was written to protect individuals from the arbitrary power of the state. But in today’s world, the threats to justice and liberty are more complex. They can come from technology, transnational crime, uncontrolled migration, or legal systems that drift away from public consent.”
Nigel Farage has said that Britain would leave the convention if he won the next election “no ifs, no buts”.
But the Prime Minister has warned that doing so would put the country in the same “camp” as Russia and Belarus.
“Let’s be clear: the ECHR underpins key international agreements on trade, security, migration and the Good Friday agreement. Anyone who is proposing to renegotiate the Good Friday agreement is not serious.
“We’re focused on the very serious policies to address this issue rather than a return to the gimmicks, the slogans, the chaos of the previous government,” Sir Keir’s official spokesman said.
Concerns have been raised that pulling out entirely would jeopardise the peace process in Northern Ireland.
But former Home Secretary Jack Straw has said would have little bearing on the Good Friday Agreement.
He said “nothing in the Belfast Agreement rules it [leaving] out as a viable course of action” as he endorsed as report by the Policy Exchange think tank which found nothing in the UK’s commitments to the peace process in Northern Ireland required it to remain a part of the convention.
