The UK government has called for European human rights laws to be “constrained” to allow Rwanda-style migration deals and the deportation of more foreign criminals, aligning with hard-right governments in Hungary and Italy. The push came during a European summit in Strasbourg, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged leaders to modernise the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to address the challenges of “irregular migration”.
Writing jointly with Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Starmer argued that the current asylum framework was “created for another era” and that updating the convention was urgently needed to protect borders and counter the rise of the populist right. The prime minister, who defended human rights law in a 2009 Guardian article, said he believes the convention has been interpreted too widely in genuine instances.
The Labour government has already announced the biggest shake-up to the asylum system in 40 years. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood warned that “dark forces are stirring up anger” over migration and argued that failing to act on human rights law could risk worse outcomes if the hard right wins the next election. The government wants to stop asylum seekers using Article 8 rights to a family life to avoid deportation and to tighten Article 3, which prohibits torture or inhuman treatment, arguing its interpretation has been expanded to block deportations over issues like mental health care access.
Critics, however, have warned of the risks of weakening safeguards. Human rights experts describe Article 3 as the “very core” of the convention. The summit also saw the UK join European hard-right governments in calling for constraints on human rights laws, a move critics say could fuel far-right agendas.
