Around a dozen cabinet ministers including the Chancellor and the Home Secretary are prepared to oppose the Prime Minister if he decides to quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), according to reports.
Jeremy Hunt and James Cleverly have been named by The Times as among the 12 potential rebels opposed to leaving the convention with other names including Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.
They are understood to outnumber those cabinet ministers who want to leave by two to one but face growing calls from Conservative MPs to quit the ECHR and last week Rishi Sunak threatened to leave if flights to Rwanda continue to be blocked as he said being in control of immigration was “more important” than membership of the convention.
A recent poll found half of Conservative voters believe Britain should quit the ECHR but its supporters warn that leaving could damage the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland because Britain and Ireland’s continuing membership of the ECHR is one of the safeguards factored into the agreement.
A source close to the Northern Ireland secretary told The Times he thought membership of the ECHR was “fundamental to the Belfast Good Friday agreement” and he believed it should be “reformed” rather than just quit.
Among those said to be open to the idea of leaving are levelling-up secretary Michael Gove and business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch with the latter having told the Sunday Times the option of quitting “needs to be on the table”.
Former home secretary Suella Braverman said she does not believe Sunak would ever leave the ECHR.
She told LBC: “My view does still stand, that ultimately to regain control of our borders properly and faithfully to the British people we do need to ultimately leave the European Convention on Human Rights. Judging from my conversations with him [Sunak], he never agreed with me on the proposition that I just set out now.”
