Home Secretary pledges changes to how ECHR applies in UK - as MLA calls for UK to join nations seeking reform

A pledge by the new Home Secretary to change the way European human rights laws are applied in the UK are a step in the right direction – but fundamental reform of the ECHR is necessary, a UUP MLA has said.

Steve Aiken’s comments come as Shabana Mahmood said the Government will “come forward with changes” to how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is followed in the UK.

placeholder image — Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says the government will look at domestic human rights laws. Photo: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire

Membership of the convention has been in the political spotlight since Reform UK said withdrawal was necessary to stop illegal immigration.

Leader Nigel Farage said any exit for Northern Ireland would take longer, and claimed he would renegotiate the Belfast Agreement.

The comments have caused concern within unionism, amid fears the province would be left behind and a “people border” created with the rest of the United Kingdom.

On Monday, Shabana Mahmood reiterated to broadcasters that the UK would not be leaving the convention as this would have “other consequences that we think are not in our national interest”.

But she said the Government saw “the case for reform primarily in our domestic legal framework, tightening up the rules”.

She said: “In the end, this is about how you strike the balance between human rights, on the one hand, and securing our borders. I do think that that balance isn’t in the right place at the moment.

“That’s why we will come forward with changes to our domestic legislation and the guidance in terms of how we apply some of the convention rights legally here at home.”

South Antrim MLA Steve Aiken said “this is the approach that HMG should have been taking from the beginning”.

However, he said the UK should join nine other Council of Europe nations in their joint letter calling for a “new and open-minded conversation” in interpreting the ECHR.

“As Denmark and Poland, amongst others, have shown, it is an approach that works. It just brings into question why our current human rights barristers-cum-politicians have taken so long to see the light”, he said.