Andrew Boff, chairman of the London Assembly and one of the longest-serving Conservative figures at City Hall, has announced he is leaving the party after 53 years, following a dispute with leader Kemi Badenoch over her demand that candidates support pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Mr Boff said he had been prevented from entering the race to become the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London because he remains supportive of the convention.
Dispute over ECHR stance
He criticised the decision to rule him out of selection, saying there was "a profound difference" between disagreeing with someone and "deciding their beliefs disqualify them from even putting themselves forward to serve".
He added: "A political party that cannot tolerate support for fundamental human rights has moved a very long way from the principles that first attracted me to it."
"I have not abandoned my Conservative principles. I believe the party has abandoned some of its own. I will not surrender those principles in order to remain a member of any political party."
Boff's history with the party
Mr Boff joined the Conservatives in 1973, has been a London-wide Assembly Member since 2008, and currently serves as its chairman. He has built a reputation as an independent-minded figure, often challenging his own party on issues from human rights to housing and migration.
A former leader of Hillingdon Council, Mr Boff has sought the Conservative nomination for Mayor of London several times and suggested he hoped to contest the party's selection for the 2028 election.
His outspoken streak has at times put him at odds with the rest of the Tories. In 2023, he was thrown out of the Conservative Party conference after heckling then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman during a speech.
Reaction from party colleagues
Sir James Cleverly, the frontrunner to be the Tory mayoral candidate, has said he is not convinced that quitting the ECHR is a "silver bullet" to bring in measures to tighten Britain's borders.
Responding to his resignation, Susan Hall, leader of the Conservatives on the London Assembly, said: "We deeply regret to hear that Andrew Boff AM has decided to leave the Conservatives after many years supporting our party. During his time on the London Assembly, and before now as a councillor and council leader, Andrew has been a forthright and vocal supporter of Conservative principles, and we thank him for his contribution to our party."
"Despite this, we stand resolutely by the party's commitment to leaving the ECHR, and believe fully that the rights and privileges that we enjoy in this country can be maintained without the need for a foreign court. We will continue to support this policy."
Impact of the departure
Mr Boff argued that the convention was not a "left-wing project" but a "safeguard against arbitrary government", created in the aftermath of the Second World War with the support of British Conservatives such as Winston Churchill.
He insisted that individual rights should not depend upon whichever party happens to be in power, particularly in a country without a codified constitution and where governments can secure large parliamentary majorities despite receiving only a minority of votes cast.
"These are Conservative values, or at least they were the values of the Conservative Party I joined," he said.
The ECHR, drafted in the aftermath of the Second World War, is separate from the European Union and is overseen by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Supporters argue it provides essential protections against abuses of state power, while critics contend it has increasingly constrained Parliament's ability to make and enforce domestic law.
Mr Boff will now sit as an independent member of the London Assembly, bringing to an end more than half a century of membership of the Conservative Party.
