Nigel Farage says he wants to abolish the Human Rights Act — the law that guarantees 16 fundamental protections in the UK. From the right to life to freedom of speech, from fair trials to free elections, he wants them gone. This isn't just about deportations. It's about stripping away the freedoms that protect us all from the potential tyrannies of government - including one that he might lead.

This is the audio version:

This is the transcript:

Nigel Farage wants to abolish the UK Human Rights Act of 1998.

That Act brought the European Convention on Human Rights, which was an initiative originally founded by  Winston Churchill, into UK law.

The purpose of the European Convention on Human Rights was literally to end the tyranny of government, which, of course, the whole of Europe had seen in the previous decade at the time that it was brought into force.

There are sixteen core rights inside the UK Human Rights Act, and apparently,  Nigel Farage wants to get rid of them all so that he can expel people from the UK.

Some of these rights are absolute. In other words, they cannot be limited.

Some are limited. In other words, they only apply in specific circumstances.

And some of them are qualified because they're balanced with the wider public interest.

But the point is, they represent our core rights that protect us from the government, and it's quite an astonishing situation where a far-right political party, which it is fair to say that Reform is, is proposing that the rights that protect us from government should be abandoned, because it is normal for far-right political parties to hate government. And yet what we're seeing Nigel Farage do is propose that his government, if he ever gets to form one, should have unfettered control over us, unrestrained by statute. I find that deeply worrying.

And for that reason, I just want to run through what those sixteen fundamental human rights are.

The first one  is a Right to Life. This is an absolute right. There are no lawful exceptions except, and this is important, self-defence. Other than that, the state has no right to take your life away. There is a demand that the state, in fact, protect your life, whether it be with regard to law enforcement, healthcare or anything else, and the arbitrary deprivation of life is not permitted.

Now, this is important because, of course, Nigel Farage is talking about being willing to return people to the countries from which they came, where they might be murdered on arrival. He will have to remove this basic human Right to Life if he's going to get his way with regard to removing people from the UK.

And the second right, which is protected, is the  Right to Be Free From Torture and Inhumane or Degrading Treatment. Again, this is an absolute right. There are no exceptions. Any form of torture, inhumanity, or degrading treatment or punishment is banned under this Act, and this applies to the conduct of government in any way, but also in things like prisons, hospitals, and detention centres. And  what's more, Nigel Farage wants to get rid of this, right, because he wants to return people to countries where it is highly likely they will suffer torture or inhumane treatment on their arrival.

We are going to remain unprotected because he wants to abuse some people.

The third right that we have  is the right to be protected from slavery and forced labour. Now, let's be clear, this is an absolute right, and it ends any entitlement of anyone to impose slavery or servitude or forced compulsory labour on anyone, and this is essential. Now, there are some exceptions in this case. For example, military service can be required in the case of war, and there are some civic obligations. For example, the duty to do jury service if called to do so, but these are exceptions. The point is that's an absolute right, and Nigel Farage wishes to take it away.

He also wishes to take away our fourth right, which is  the Right to Liberty and Security. This prevents arbitrary detention or false imprisonment, or overdue detention by the police on suspicion without any charge being rendered. This is a historic right in the UK, dating back to Magna Carta. But Nigel Farage wishes to take it away.

There is, after that, a Right to a Fair Trial. And this is the fifth right that we enjoy as a consequence of the Human Rights Act. But once more, Nigel Farage wants to take this away. He wants to export people from the UK without them having any Right to a Fair Trial after the time that they've been detained. Detention will be enough, then they will go. There is nothing that they'll be able to do about it. No legal process will be involved. And this is completely contrary, again, to the principles established in this country, in Magna Carta in the 13th century, but which will be abandoned by Nigel Farage so that he might impose his racist will on this country.

Our sixth right  is to have no punishment without prior legal process. In other words, nobody can be punished for an act that they have undertaken until they have been convicted of it. And once they have been found guilty and a penalty has been imposed, except in the most exceptional of circumstances through the proper judicial appeal system, no further penalty can be imposed upon them. In other words, there is no punishment without the proper process of law. But Nigel Farage wants to get rid of this, because he wants to introduce punishment without the proper process of law. And that means that you will be as vulnerable as anybody he wants to deport. You could literally be punished for something for which you have never been convicted.

The seventh right  is the Right to Private and Family Life, to a home, and to the privacy of your own affairs within it. Now, this is a qualified right, because there are quite clearly occasions when public security requires that this secrecy, which is otherwise provided for by this right, be broken down. The police must have the power, on occasion, to intervene, and I'm not arguing otherwise. But in broad terms, you have a right to family relationships, a home life, and to private communication. But Nigel Farage does, once again, want to take that away from people because he wants to break up families so that he can export some people from the UK, or rather deport some people from the UK under the terms of his proposed plans. The right to a family life will be ended by Nigel Farage.

The eighth right is  the Right to have Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. One of the most fundamental human rights that exists, in my opinion. This is the bedrock on which democracy has to be built. But he wants to break that because it's quite clear that inside the political beliefs of Reform, there is a core of thinking that says that this is a Christian country, even though neither Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, or any of the other leaders of Reform show any indication that they have any true understanding of Christianity. But nonetheless, they use this symbolism because they are clearly trying to prejudice the followers of other religions.   Your right to believe is at risk from Nigel Farage, and he wants to take it away.

There is a ninth right, and that  is the Freedom of Expression. It is the freedom to hold opinions and receive information, which you think is important. Now, again, this is a qualified right. You can't libel people. You can't incite terrorist acts. You can't incite violence. You cannot shout 'fire' in a theatre and expect to go unpunished if, as a consequence, there's a riot as people try to get out and they're injured. But there is, as a consequence of this right, a duty to protect press freedom in the UK, a right to offer political thought without constraint, which is why Nigel Farage gets the opportunity that he does, and a freedom of artistic expression.  You might lose all of those things if Nigel Farage gets his way.

In the same way, you could lose your tenth right, which is the Right of Assembly and Association. Your right to protest, in other words. Recent governments, whether Conservative or Labour, have done a great deal to try to undermine this right already, in deeply worrying ways. And a deeply worrying way in which they've done it is to make sure that it seems that far-right wing protest is currently allowed, but anything to do with protest about Gaza is severely constrained, and anything to do with climate change is basically made illegal.  There is a real problem with this, right already. But what you're going to find is it's going to disappear if Nigel Farage gets his way.

The eleventh right is  the right to marry and found a family. And that's fundamental as well, but let's be honest, I don't think, in truth, taking away the Human Rights Act will change this greatly. So I'm not going to linger on this for much longer except to note that this right has been extended, of course, of late to same sex relationships, and whether that would survive the withdrawal of the Human Rights Act is a very good question.

Our twelfth right is  the right to enjoy freedom from discrimination. We cannot have discrimination in this country on the basis of sex, race, religion, political opinion, or other types of prejudice. But Nigel Farage wants to take that away. Just  imagine if you're from an ethnic minority group, or if you are LGBTQ+ right now, or if you are a believer in the Islamic faith, or if you are from the far left. Do you think that you're going to feel comfortable about what Nigel Farage is going to do? I doubt it very much. There is a longstanding tradition in the UK that there should not be discrimination on this basis, and we have got used to that idea. But if Nigel Farage gets his way, the Human Rights Act will be abolished and these rights will disappear.  Worry if you are anything but white, male and Christian.

The thirteenth right is the right to hold property. And this is a qualified right, because, of course, holding property does require that you move through all the right processes to acquire it. So whilst we do have a right to own money, land, pensions, intellectual property and other things we do, of course, have to pay the taxes on the way to acquiring them. We do have to comply with the conditions of their ownership. So, for example, if we have a car and wish to put it on the road, we have to insure it, and so on.

So it isn't an absolute right that we're talking about here. But basically, this says we do have a right to property. But  if Nigel Farage gets his way, that might disappear.

So, two might the fourteenth right,  which is a Right to Education. We do know that Nigel Farage is already dedicated to removing some parts of the education process in the UK if he could get his hands on the whole system, and presuming that he could cajole the governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to follow what he would want to do in England.

In particular, he wants to remove the right to education that reflects the special educational needs of a great many young people in the UK.  He said so. He thinks they're basically skiving. He doesn't believe that conditions like autism and ADHD have any consequences with regard to education. He doesn't  understand why people who think differently, because their brain is wired differently from the majority in this country, need to be educated in different ways. The right to an education could disappear. And given that  15% of people in the UK probably have special educational needs for these reasons, someone you know is going to be affected.

The fifteenth right  is the Right to Free Elections. Remember what Donald Trump is doing in the USA. He told people in 2024 that if they voted for him, they might never have to vote again. Farage models himself on Trump.   Just imagine where he would like to go. The Right to Free Elections could disappear if Farage wins in 2029.

And finally, our sixteenth right  comes with the Abolition of The Death Penalty. There is no death penalty in this country in either peacetime or wartime because we've abolished it as a consequence of the Human Rights Act. But people like Farage have always promoted the idea that capital punishment has a role within a penal system. And there are undoubtedly people in the UK who believe that we should bring back hanging, let's be clear about that. And in that case, there is a potential risk that people will face the death penalty  and be put to death inappropriately if Nigel Farage gets his way. This is what Nigel Farage wants to do  to you because he wants to expel people from the UK.

This isn't an issue just about addressing the desire on his part to remove migrants from this country, inappropriate as I think that is in almost every case. This is an issue about removing your personal freedoms. Your right to live without fear in the UK. And I think that's an issue for all of us, and it's an issue with regard to funding the future, because if we live in fear, and that's what Nigel Farage is promising that we will have to do, we cannot live in a country that can flourish, and that is of importance when it comes to funding, and funding our future, and that's why this video is on this channel.

Taking further action

If you want to write a letter to your MP on the issues raised in this blog post, there is a ChatGPT prompt to assist you in doing so, with full instructions, here.

One word of warning, though: please ensure you have the correct MP. ChatGPT can get it wrong.

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