Campaigners have called on the leader of the Opposition to show leadership after Tory MP Steve Barclay urged Kemi Badenoch to pledge to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
The former Brexit Secretary has said that Kemi Badenoch should promise to pull the UK out of the ECHR if the party returns to power arguing that it would stop the flow of small boats crossing the Channel.
However, campaigners have said such a move would be incredibly damaging for UK interests both at home and abroad. The ECHR is written into a number of the UK’s most important international treaties including the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement which has delivered peace in Northern Ireland and the last government's Brexit deal, which ensures the British businesses can continue to trade with their largest market.
Badenoch has so far refrained from taking up this position, even criticising Robert Jenrick during the leadership contest last summer for promising to do so.
Naomi Smith, CEO of Best for Britain said,
“Leaving the ECHR won’t do anything to stop small boats, but it will compromise the Good Friday Agreement, lead to the suspension of essential parts of the Brexit Deal and put us alongside Belarus and Russia as the only European nations outside the treaty.
“At a time of global insecurity abroad, and economic instability at home, this would be catastrophic and Kemi Badenoch must show leadership by resisting calls for such a self-destructive move from those within her party.”