The Northern Ireland shadow secretary, Alex Burghart MP, speaks to the News Letter about the party's plan to quit the European Convention of Human Rights. He also criticises the Labour Party government's joint legacy plan with the Irish government. Mr Burghart was speaking from the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Tuesday October 7 2025. Video by Ben Lowry, editor Belfast News Letter
00:00So what do you think about the fact that there has been a legacy announcement with an Irish government that is suing the UK on legacy for the former conditional amnesty plan when it has operated a de facto amnesty?
00:15I'm just wondering what you think of the principle of that.
00:18Well I think a number of things about that Ben.
00:21The first is I never felt that that action by the Irish government was appropriate at all.
00:26And I didn't really understand why Westminster needed to bring Dublin into discussions about legacy.
00:36However, within the agreement that Hilary Benn has signed, I understand that there is provision for greater cooperation between the Irish authorities and the UK authorities on legacy.
00:47And what I really need to see from that is the Irish government being honest about the collusion that we know existed between the Garda and the provisional IRA at times.
00:59To be honest about the fact that there were criminals who were not extradited from Ireland to the UK during the Troubles.
01:06And for a much more open and honest debate about what was happening during the Troubles than I think has previously happened.
01:15But that almost suggests that it's okay for the Irish government to jointly preside over legacy.
01:19First of all, is there not a sovereignty issue?
01:21There is Ben and that's why I said I didn't see the need to bring Dublin into that conversation.
01:27However, what I have wanted to see for some time, what I've spoken about for some time,
01:32is the need for people to be held to account for having colluded with terrorists during the Troubles.
01:41And so I hope that that part of the agreement bears fruit.
01:46And the legal case before Strasbourg hasn't even been dropped?
01:50No, it hasn't been dropped.
01:51And if Hilary Ben wanted to bring Dublin into the legacy agreement,
01:57I should have said that it would have been a precondition of having that conversation to drop that action.
02:01Of course, they wouldn't even have been able to bring the case if we hadn't been in the ECHR.
02:07And your party is now committed to leaving the ECHR.
02:12Is that actually going to happen?
02:13No, that's entirely right.
02:15Now, we have brought forward the most extensive analysis of why the UK needs to leave the ECHR that anybody has done.
02:25Lord Wolfson, who is King's Council, has done this 200-page document which looks at how the UK needs to leave the ECHR
02:35in order to be able to control its borders, in order to be able to take care of certain legacy issues,
02:40in order to be able to protect welfare, prioritise British citizens for British services.
02:48And it's true to say that once we have left the ECHR, as future Conservative government is committed to do,
02:57it would not be possible for another country to bring such illegal action against it.
03:01The Unionist fear is that when, if you do leave the ECHR, Nationalist Ireland will go berserk,
03:08and that there'll be an opt-out for Northern Ireland and another Irish seaborder.
03:12So, that won't be the case, that in David Wolfson's report, he's very clear that we can remain committed to the peace process
03:21and to the 1998 agreement, and have the whole of the United Kingdom leave the European Convention on Human Rights,
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