Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice said on Thursday that a future Reform government would restrict staffing in a new migration ministry to civil servants who “believe in the cause of secure borders,” and pledged to press ahead with plans to withdraw the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Speaking alongside former Conservative home secretary Suella Braverman and Tory peer Lord Frost at an event hosted by the Prosperity Institute, Tice said officials who did not accept a government mandate to leave the ECHR should find other employment. "If we have won the general election on a mandate to leave the ECHR it's very simple: either you accept the mandate of the people and get stuck in, or frankly — in the nicest possible way — go and get a job somewhere else otherwise it's not going to end well," he told reporters.
Braverman, who published a 50-page paper titled "Why and How to Leave the ECHR: Roadmap to Freedom," urged fundamental changes to the way judges are selected and called for a restoration of ministerial power over appointments. She said she would scrap the independent Judicial Appointments Commission and return appointment powers to ministers to prevent judges from frustrating government policy.
"I think there needs to be a much better restoration of ministerial power and accountability. So I would scrap the Judicial Appointments Committee and I would take it back to ministers," Braverman said. The former home secretary and attorney general said the Convention had "mutated from a shield against tyranny into a sword against sovereignty," language used in her published plan.
Tice said Reform would create a bespoke department for immigration and a dedicated border force and that those working on the issue should be demonstrably committed to enforcing tougher border measures. He said the concept of neutral civil servants in that area had failed and that Reform would not accept neutrality where the government intended to implement a mandate to leave the ECHR.
Tice also said Reform would be willing to alter arrangements in Northern Ireland to facilitate withdrawal from the Convention if necessary. Nationalist politicians have warned that leaving the ECHR would breach the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, but Tice said references to the Convention could be removed from the accord. Braverman added that a future government should be ready to hold a referendum on Northern Ireland's constitutional status if required to enact her policy.
"If there needs to be a border poll, then the people should have a vote," Braverman said, adding that "ultimately, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. It is not some disjointed, detached outpost subject to its own separate laws. If the UK leaves the European Convention on Human Rights, so must Northern Ireland."
Braverman, who remains a Conservative MP, dismissed speculation that she planned to defect to Reform. She said she had been approached by figures within Reform but insisted she had not decided to change parties. She also disputed criticisms from Reform chairman Zia Yusuf, who this year accused her of involvement in the handling of the Afghan data breach; Braverman said Yusuf lacked experience in national security and had spoken without authority.
The ECHR, enforced by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, is separate from the European Union and sets minimum standards for human rights across Council of Europe member states. Withdrawal from the convention would be an unprecedented constitutional step for the UK and would raise significant legal and political questions, particularly in relation to Northern Ireland and the country's international obligations.
Advocates of staying in the convention say it provides a safeguard for rights and a check on executive power; critics argue it can impede national sovereignty. Braverman's roadmap and the statements by Reform leaders indicate a package of proposals that would combine legislative, institutional and constitutional measures to remove the convention's influence on UK law and to centralise control over judicial appointments.
Tice's remarks underline a strategy of aligning public administration with political priorities, a stance that would mark a significant shift from long-standing conventions of impartial civil service recruitment and deployment. The proposals come as debate continues within and between parties about the balance between parliamentary sovereignty, ministerial control and judicial independence.
Neither Reform UK nor Braverman provided a timetable for leaving the ECHR beyond assertions that the steps could be enacted by a government with an electoral mandate. Legal experts and political figures have previously warned that withdrawal could provoke legal challenges and diplomatic repercussions, but details of how the government would implement such changes were not disclosed at the event.
The proposals set out by Tice and Braverman are likely to intensify debates over human rights, judicial independence and the governance of devolved and cross-border arrangements in the run-up to the next general election.