Matt Goodwin gives ten shocking reasons why we should leave the ECHR
Matthew Goodwin has highlighted ten horrific examples of why Britain should leave the ECHR in a scathing attack on the international convention.
The right-wing political commentator believes the ECHR is preventing Britain from controlling its own borders and therefore damaging its sovereignty.
Goodwin on his substack outlines the UK is “not a serious nation” as it “cannot control who is coming in and out of its own national community, cannot remove dangerous foreign offenders from its own streets, and cannot keep you, the British people, safe.”
To illustrate his argument, Goodwin then highlights ten disturbing cases which “not only reflect how powerless and weak we have become but the sheer idiocy, lunacy, and tragedy that’s now playing out on Britain’s streets on a regular basis.”
They include the case of Ahmed Ali Alid, a Moroccan asylum seeker who was denied asylum in Italy, Germany and Spain but allowed to stay in Britain for three years while his claim was processed. During that time, he was convicted of murdering a 70-year-old pensioner out for a morning stroll.
Another example was the case of Azam Mangori, an Iraqi asylum seeker denied asylum in 2018 but never deported. Two years after his rejection in 2020, he murdered and dismembered Lorraine Cox, a 32-year-old woman who was walking home from a night out in Exeter.
Similarly, Goodwin highlighted Samiualahq Akbari, an Afghani asylum seeker who arrived in 2016. Days after being released from jail for assault, Akbari walked into a Tesco in south London ‘to find and kill English people’ (prosecutor’s words).
After finding two men, he tapped them on the shoulder and asked what nationality they were before attacking them with a ten-inch blade. He was later jailed for attempted murder for 21 years.
Other cases Goodwin underlined involved rape, acid attacks, kidnap and beheadings, all committed by people who, in Goodwin’s opinion, should have not been allowed into the country in the first place, but were afforded asylum by the ECHR.
Many migrants fleeing persecution, including those who cross the channel in small boats, use the ECHR to claim asylum in Britain, prompting a national debate on immigration.
The convention has dominated news headlines over the last year as Britain flirted with leaving it after it blocked Sunak’s plans to deport migrants to Rwanda.
One of Starmer’s first acts was to scrap the Rwanda plan, shortly after which he declared: “We [Labour] will never withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.”
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In the weeks that followed Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage both called for a national referendum on whether to leave the ECHR. Robert Jenrick, one of the final two candidates for the Tory leadership, has advocated leaving.
Polling on the issue paints a mixed picture. In November 2023, YouGov found 51 per cent of people thought the UK should remain a member, while 28 per cent backed leaving with 21 per cent not sure.
A Telegraph commissioned poll in April 2024 agreed, finding 52 per cent in favour of remaining in the ECHR, while 27 per cent did not know and 21 per cent wanted to leave.
It also found division among party lines. Among 2019 Conservative voters, 49 per cent wanted to leave. Conversely, among 2019 Labour voters, 71 per cent wanted to remain.
A GB News poll asking: “Should we have a referendum on our membership of the ECHR?” received a 97 per cent “yes” response.