‘Use polling day for vote on ECHR’
HOLDING a referendum to quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on the same day as the General Election is the only way to see off the threat from Reform UK, MPs and peers have said.
And Boris Johnson should front the referendum campaign to ‘square off’ Nigel Farage, according to plans put forward by a powerful Tory faction.
The idea of a ‘Super Thursday’ double poll has been gaining support after being developed by the influential group of ‘New Conservative’ MPs as a lastditch attempt to save their party. The plan has been led by former Tory deputy chairman Brendan ClarkeSmith and senior backers are understood to include former Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost.
The joint referendum-andElection plan is being presented as the only way to avoid a Tory electoral wipeout. The calculation is that the Reform voter base, likely to back quitting the ECHR, would know a ‘yes’ vote would be implemented only by the Conservative Party, whose manifesto would specify that, if re-elected, it would respect the will of the people.
‘You’d assume everybody who voted Reform should be voting to leave ECHR,’ an MP said. ‘It then comes to the fact that you want it implemented. A referendum would also give us the power to get it through the Lords.’
Supporters of a double vote believe it would increase turnout, and be a ‘good wedge issue’ with Labour. The referendum push, they argue, would need to go hand in hand with a vow to reform the Human Rights Act – another pledge that would have to be in the manifesto.
It is thought that Mr Johnson is not involved in the MPs’ proposals and his spokesman declined to comment.