Oral Answers to Questions

Jacob Collier Excerpts

Wednesday 7th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Peter Lamb (Crawley) (Lab)]

5. What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the UK’s membership of the European convention on human rights on the Belfast agreement.

[Jacob Collier (Burton and Uttoxeter) (Lab)]

7. What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the UK’s membership of the European convention on human rights on the Belfast agreement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Hilary Benn]

As I have told the House before, I think it would be extremely irresponsible. As the House needs no reminding, the Good Friday agreement was very carefully negotiated between several parties, and it would be reckless for one party to march in and seek to remove one of its founding pillars.

[Jacob Collier]

The European convention on human rights is foundational to the Good Friday agreement. Given that Reform and the Conservatives want to crash us out of the convention, does the Secretary of State agree that that would put at risk the Good Friday agreement and that they really ought to think again?

[Hilary Benn]

I agree with my hon. Friend. We need to remember that it is the Human Rights Act that gives all of us access to the rights and protections contained in the European convention on human rights. To leave it would put us alone in Europe, in the company of Russia and Belarus. Is that really where the Opposition want to be—welcomed with a pat on the back by President Putin?