On Tuesday morning Reform UK leader Nigel Farage delivered a speech in Oxford announcing that the UK would leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if his party were in power. Reform sees the convention as a barrier to its planned deportation of people who have entered Britain illegally and remain in the country at the expense of taxpayers. But what might be the unintended consequences of such a move? Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
00:00On Tuesday morning, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage delivered a speech announcing that the UK would leave the European Convention on Human Rights, or ECHR, if his party were in power.
00:13This forms part of a proposed five-year emergency programme to detain and deport illegal migrants and deter future arrivals should Reform UK be elected to government.
00:24The only way we will stop the boats is by detaining and deporting absolutely anyone that comes via that route.
00:40And if we do that, the boats will stop coming within days, because there would be no incentive to pay a trafficker to get into this country.
00:50The ECHR is the centrepiece treaty of the Council of Europe, which, like many international organisations, was formed after the horrors of the Second World War in 1949.
01:02The UK was one of the Council's founding members, and today almost all European countries are members, with the notable exceptions of Belarus and Russia.
01:12The ECHR was inspired by the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and came into effect in 1953.
01:21The basic protections and freedoms it guarantees are enforced by the European Court of Human Rights, located in the French city of Strasbourg.
01:29Asylum seekers in the UK are protected by the ECHR from deportation to countries where they face violence, torture or death, something they could be in danger of under reforms proposals.
01:40Their right to remain in the country is also protected by Article 8, respecting private and family life, as well as Article 14, the prohibition of discrimination.
01:52Reform sees this as a barrier to its planned deportation of people who have entered Britain illegally, and remain in the country at the expense of taxpayers.
02:01What really bothers me is what is happening on the streets of our country.
02:05What really bothers me is what is happening to British citizens.
02:08So it's all about whose side are you on? Whose side are you on? Are you on the side of the British people or international treaties?
02:16However, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who is also considered a possible exit from the ECHR, has accused reform of being reckless.
02:24Saying you're going to leave the ECHR is not a plan. It's going to have a lot of impact on things like the Good Friday Agreement.
02:31It's going to impact on so many other laws. How do we make sure that if we have to do this, we do it in a way that doesn't destabilise our country or our economy?
02:40The Labour government has also voiced frustrations with the ECHR as recently as June.
02:45However, they have ruled out leaving the Convention, saying instead that it must evolve.
02:50No, we're not planning to either withdraw either permanently or temporarily from the ECHR, because it underpins a number of absolutely vital agreements, including the Good Friday Agreement.
03:04That's not to say that we don't think the Convention requires reform. We're making the case for reform in Europe.
03:10Meanwhile, the Lib Dems have accused Reform UK of ripping up human rights.
03:14Nigel Farage helped cause this problem in the first place. Brexit has meant that we're not able to force the French to take illegal immigrants coming over on small boats back.
03:27Now we have to do deals with them, and previously we could force them to take these people back.
03:32So Nigel Farage should have apologised today and not come up with pie-in-the-sky policies, which frankly are aping Vladimir Putin and Russia by pulling out of the ECHR.
03:45One human rights lawyer has also warned about the impact of withdrawal from the ECHR on all UK residents.
03:52Well, I think if we were to come out of all these important, hard-fought-for conventions that protect the rights of migrants,
04:00but also protect the rights of British citizens, I think it would be a bad day for Britain.
04:04How would Britain be seen? You know, we condemn countries and their leaders as being despotic when they refuse to sign up to some of those treaties.
04:12I think it would be a really grim day.
04:13However, as recent protests have shown, immigration, small boats and asylum hotels are fast-becoming defining features of British politics.
04:22Reform UK's plan would not only mean an exit from the ECHR, but also from the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention.
04:31These would be drastic steps for the UK, a country underpinned by democratic principles, the rule of law and the protection of human rights and civil liberties.
04:40Reform only have four MPs, and so are a long way off being in government.
04:45But recent polling suggests they have surged ahead of the UK's traditional mainstream parties.
04:50The question is, just how workable are their proposals in a Western liberal democracy?
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