The political news-cycle throughout August was dominated by headline after headline about immigration, asylum seekers, “small boats,” migrants and the nature of accommodation for newcomers to the United Kingdom. Reform UK has been to the forefront of the arguments with the party announcing proposals to deport over 600,000 people within five years and also restrict who is even allowed to apply for asylum.
The whole debate, and how public discourse has shifted so much in recent weeks, is something I find deeply disturbing. The “anti-migrant” tone contained within hundreds and hundreds of articles in mainstream newspapers has been increasingly inflammatory, and it is quite something to see members of the clergy and others accusing politicians of actively seeking to stir up division.
I am also quite shocked at how Nigel Farage and others are calling for the United Kingdom to step away from the Council of Europe (CoE) European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and repeal the UK’s associated Human Rights Act, and “disapply” treaties such as the 1951 Refugee Convention, the Anti-trafficking Convention and the UN Convention against Torture.
Such actions would even put the UK’s membership of the CoE at risk. We should all be proud of the work of this international organisation, which came into being in the years following the end of the Second World War, and how it has strived to make Europe a safer and more tolerant continent.
And we should also recognise the significance of the ECHR. I won’t list all the articles in the Convention, but here are a few: right to life, prohibition of torture, prohibition of slavery and forced labour, right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, no punishment without law, right to respect for private and family life, right of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression, and freedom of
assembly and association.
Make no mistake, the rights contained within the ECHR and the Human Rights Act have been used to improve the lives of millions of people. These have included supporting victims of crime such as individuals suffering domestic abuse, developing greater protections for children, disabled people and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The rights in the ECHR are also enshrined through the Good Friday Agreement from 1998 which ended most of the violence in Northern Ireland and, of course, the Cornish are recognised as a national minority through a Framework Convention linked to the CoE.
Human rights are important for everyone – without exception – and we should do our utmost that they are not undermined.
Article published in the Cornish Guardian (3rd September 2025) and the West Briton (4th September 2025).