UK: Clear majority of people don’t want to leave European human rights convention - new poll

Fifty-seven per cent said UK should stay part of ECHR, while more than 90% said next government should instead prioritise cost-of-living crisis

More than 80% of people who voted Conservative in 2019 don’t think leaving ECHR should be a top-five priority for next government

‘Not only would leaving the convention be completely unprecedented and breach the Good Friday Agreement, but a clear majority of the public don’t want to do it’ - Karla McLaren

Ahead of the annual Conservative Party conference (1-4 Oct), Amnesty International UK has released new polling data showing that a clear majority of people across the UK want to remain part of the European Convention on Human Rights and think the next Government should focus on tackling the cost-of-living crisis above all other issues.

The poll comes after a highly-publicised attack on the UN Refugee Convention by Suella Braverman, as well as renewed remarks from the Home Secretary about the possibility of the UK leaving the European human rights treaty.

The Amnesty poll, carried out by Savanta, shows that more than half of UK adults (57%) polled said the UK should stay part of the ECHR, with only one in five (22%) saying that the UK should withdraw (21% said they didn’t know). Furthermore, the majority of people in every one of the UK’s nations and regions said they were in favour of the UK staying in the convention, with those wishing to withdraw in a small minority everywhere.

The vast majority of people - more than 90% - said the next UK government should prioritise other issues over any withdrawal from the Convention.

When asked to rank the top five issues that they wanted the next Government to prioritise, the highest-ranking topics across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland were tackling the rising cost of living and reducing inflation. Fewer than one in ten (8% in England and Wales, 2% in Scotland, and 7% in Northern Ireland) people included leaving the European Convention in their top five.

Of people who voted Conservative in the last election in England and Wales, more than 80% said they do not think leaving the ECHR should be a top five priority for the next government.

More than four out of five people (83%) said that they felt it was important to be able to challenge the Government if it violates people’s rights - a key protection that the ECHR provides - and more than two in five adults (44%) believed it was a positive thing that the UK is part of an international system which holds all governments to the same human rights standards, with only 9% opposing it.

Karla McLaren, Amnesty International UK’s Head of Government and Political Affairs, said:

“Not only would leaving the convention be completely unprecedented and breach the Good Friday Agreement, but a clear majority of the public don’t want to do it.

“Most people want the UK to stay in the ECHR believing it’s vital to be able to challenge the Government when people’s rights have been violated, which is exactly what the convention makes possible. 

“Achieving justice for the Hillsborough families, full decriminalisation of homosexuality and ending corporal punishment in schools were all only possible because of the European Convention.

“Our poll shows that the minority who will use their platform at the Conservative Party conference to voice extreme views on the ECHR are grossly out of step with the public. 

“Leaving the European Convention would be a huge backwards step for this country and would drastically reduce the rights and protections of everyone living in the UK.”

Protecting everyone’s rights

The ECHR has provided vital protection to people in the UK and across Europe for 70 years. The UK was pivotal in the convention’s creation after the Second World War and was one of the first countries to adopt it. Leaving it would be an unprecedented and extreme move. Not only would it breach the Good Friday Agreement, undermining peace in Northern Ireland, and reduce rights protections for everyone in the UK, it could lead to the unravelling of human rights protections across the continent. The only countries which have ever left the convention are Greece during military rule in the 1970s, and Russia, which was expelled after its illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.  

Polling methodology

Between 31 August and 8 September, more than 3,600 adults across the UK were asked by Savanta what they wanted the next Government to prioritise, about their main concerns, as well as questions related to the importance of the European Convention on Human Rights. Data were weighted to be representative of the UK by age, sex, region and social grade.

For more information on the European Convention on Human Rights, go here.

For link to the poll go here