The UK government has already promised to devise clearer and stricter rules that will tell immigration officials and judges how to interpret the right to family life.
“I think it is a runner,” argues Sir Jonathan Jones, who was the Treasury Solicitor until 2020. This, he believes, could be the best way forward – particularly around the definition of the ECHR’s Article 8, which guarantees the right to, among other things, family life.
“It’s legitimate for the government to say we will take a tighter view, as a proper, reasoned, good faith attempt to rein in what we think Article 8 covers and what it doesn’t.”
But Alex Chalk, the last Conservative Lord Chancellor before Labour won power, argues that the UK government needs to seek reform faster.
“The ECHR is not holy writ,” he told the BBC during the Conservative party conference. “This government should be moving much more quickly to seek urgent reform. [It] should have been saying, look, we want to lead on this to do this in six weeks.
“The US Constitution was drafted in 15 weeks or so. This really can be done.”