In an exclusive interview, the former PM says there is now a ‘strong case’ to give the public a say on Britain’s membership of convention
Britain should hold a referendum on its membership of the European Convention on Human Rights, Boris Johnson has said, in an intervention over the most contentious issue of the Tory leadership race.
The former prime minister said there is now a “strong case” to give the public a say on the ECHR, which critics say is preventing Britain from having full control of its immigration policy.
Membership of the ECHR has become a key battleground in the Conservative leadership contest. Robert Jenrick has promised to take Britain out of it, while the other three candidates are not in favour of doing so.
Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, Mr Johnson suggested the ECHR does not “provide people with protections that they wouldn’t otherwise have”.
In a wide-ranging interview ahead of the publication of his memoir, Unleashed, he also said that Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Donald Trump had been US president.
He claimed that Trump’s “sheer unpredictability” would have put Mr Putin off his plan, and that the world is a better place when America has strong leadership.
Mr Johnson also reveals in his book, published on Oct 10, that a listening device was found in his private bathroom in the Foreign Office after it was used by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.
He says it “may or may not be a coincidence” that a bug was found in the bathroom during a regular sweep for covert devices some time later.
He does not rule out one day returning to Parliament, and possibly a second stint as prime minister, and begins his book with the phrase “hasta la vista”, which means “see you later” in Spanish.
Mr Johnson also writes that he is no longer certain that lockdowns were the reason for the downturn in infections during the Covid pandemic, saying that the number of cases might have come down in “the natural course of events”, though he remains convinced that the lockdowns saved lives.
He apologises to children whose education was irreversibly damaged by the months of school closures during the pandemic, writing in the book that “we should at all costs avoid doing it again”.
A newspaper serialisation of Mr Johnson’s book was timed to coincide with the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham this week, during which Mr Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat made their pitches to party members.
Mr Johnson does not intend to endorse any of the candidates and has not said which of them he might vote for when the membership has its say, but his comments on the ECHR will be seen as a boost to Mr Jenrick’s campaign.
The former immigration minister is the only candidate who has said he would take Britain out of the ECHR if he became prime minister.
Asked if he would support a referendum on ECHR membership, Mr Johnson says: “I would. I think it has changed. It has become much more legally adventurist.
“It’s trying to second guess what national jurisdiction should do.
“There’s a strong case for a proper referendum, a proper d iscussion about it because I’m not certain that it actually provides people with protections that they wouldn’t otherwise have.”
Mr Johnson says he agreed with the assessment of Lord Sumption, the former Supreme Court judge, who wrote a magazine article last year arguing that human rights are well protected by UK domestic laws and said that the convention “makes us accept rights which we may not want and for which there is maybe no democratic mandate”.
Sir James Fawcett, Mr Johnson’s maternal grandfather, was president of the European Commission for Human Rights, which decided whether cases should be referred to the European Court of Human Rights.
He says matters have “really changed since my grandfather was president”.
The commission was abolished in 1998 when a new directive of the ECHR gave people direct access to the court.
Britain’s attempts to deport migrants to Rwanda under the Conservative government were thwarted by the European Court, which interprets the Convention.
Mr Johnson dropped heavy hints when he was prime minister that Britain could leave the Convention, and Mr Jenrick has said his party will “die” if it does not back his call to leave it.
He has said that any suggestion that the ECHR can be reformed is “fantasy” and used the language of Brexit to say the issue of membership boiled down to leave or remain.
Ms Badenoch has said that leaving the ECHR would not address “the root of the problem”, saying that other countries that are signatories to the Convention have higher deportation rates than the UK.
Mr Tugendhat has said that he would be prepared to leave the ECHR if necessary, but that Britain should first try to opt out of parts of the convention that are problematic.
The Rwanda scheme was ruled to be illegal by the UK’s Supreme Court, but only after flights had been blocked by the European Court at the 11th hour.
The convention and the court are both separate from the European Union.
