A powerful Tory faction has touted holding a referendum to quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on the same day as the General Election – saying it is the only way to see off the threat from Reform UK.
According to reports in the Daily Mail, a ‘Super Thursday’ double poll proposal is being worked on by ‘New Conservative’ MPs in a last-ditch attempt to save their party.
It is being fronted by former Tory deputy chairman Brendan Clarke-Smith and senior backers are understood to include former Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost.
And Boris Johnson has been tipped to front the referendum campaign to ‘square off’ Nigel Farage.
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.
It echos David Cameron’s gamble in 2015 to offer the guarantee of a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union.
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.
Reacting to the news, Peter Stefanovic posted on X:
“To all those again calling for us to leave the ECHR a reminder that during the past 18 months this Government has robbed millions of workers of the right to strike, locked millions out of the electoral process & stripped back our right to protest about it all.
“Handing our human rights over to this lot would be like handing a kitten over to a hungry crocodile.”
Related: All the times Lee Anderson talked smack about Reform UK
