Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant has challenged Conservative and Reform UK plans to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, warning that both parties need to explain how withdrawal would square with commitments made under the Good Friday Agreement.
Speaking at Labour Party Conference in Liverpool on Tuesday morning, Bryant attacked the two parties over their support for leaving the ECHR.
He said:
"They've clearly never read the Good Friday Agreement. Or maybe they don't even care about it."
Bryant pledged that Labour would remain committed to the Convention.
ECHR protections embedded in Good Friday settlement
The 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement contains explicit commitments on human rights in Northern Ireland.
It required the UK Government to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into Northern Ireland law, giving people direct access to the courts and remedies where Convention rights are breached. The Agreement remains the foundation of Northern Ireland's constitutional and power-sharing arrangements.
That makes Bryant's challenge substantive, although leaving the ECHR would not automatically mean the Good Friday Agreement itself ceased to exist. The legal and political question is how a future government would preserve the rights protections promised in 1998 while withdrawing from the Convention.
Conservatives acknowledge Northern Ireland complication
Kemi Badenoch made leaving the ECHR official Conservative policy in October 2025, arguing that the Convention restricts Britain's ability to control immigration and restore parliamentary sovereignty.
The Conservatives' own current policy document acknowledges that withdrawal would be "challenging and complex" and would require a "union-wide approach, particularly with respect to Northern Ireland".
The party says it has considered the legal consequences and believes Britain can leave in an orderly way.
Reform also pledges ECHR withdrawal
Reform UK likewise promises to leave the ECHR and repeal the Human Rights Act.
Its policy forms part of a wider immigration programme under which it says people entering Britain illegally would be made ineligible for asylum and subject to deportation.
Neither Reform nor the Conservatives had issued a specific response to Bryant's conference remarks at the time of publication.
Bryant also appeals for compromise over Drumcree
Bryant's intervention came against the backdrop of renewed tensions over the Drumcree parade in Portadown.
The Northern Ireland Secretary has been involved in talks aimed at finding a compromise after protesters blocked an Orange Order march that had been permitted by the Parades Commission. He has stressed that maintaining power-sharing and avoiding renewed sectarian confrontation must remain the priority.
He said the Government would continue working with all sides to seek a peaceful solution.
ECHR debate now carries Northern Ireland dimension
The Conservatives and Reform have largely presented withdrawal from the Convention through the lens of immigration, deportations and parliamentary sovereignty.
Bryant's intervention shifts the argument towards Northern Ireland, where ECHR protections are woven directly into the political settlement created in 1998.
His challenge to both parties is therefore straightforward: if they want Britain to leave the Convention, they must explain in detail how they would preserve the human-rights guarantees contained in the Good Friday Agreement and avoid destabilising the wider settlement.
