REFORM leader Nigel Farage has come under criticism after suggesting his party would seek to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).
This move is part of Reform’s broader plan to massively overhaul Britain’s approach to immigration.
Speaking at a news conference earlier this week, Farage unveiled a sweeping proposal that includes deporting up to 600,000 asylum seekers, leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and repealing the Human Rights Act.
Central to his pitch is a radical restructuring of Britain’s legal obligations.
Farage confirmed that his vision would require renegotiation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which he claimed had been too deeply tied to the ECHR by former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“Can we renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement to get the ECHR out of it? Yes,” Farage said.
However, he admitted such a move would “take longer”, citing Northern Ireland’s unique legal and political status.
His comments have triggered alarm across the political spectrum in Britain and Belfast, with many warning that the GFA should not be treated as a political bargaining chip.
A British government spokesperson dismissed Farage’s proposal outright, stating, “Anyone who is proposing to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement is not serious.”
The government reiterated that the ECHR underpins not only the GFA but also critical agreements on trade and security.
Former SDLP leader Colum Eastwood accused Farage of “undermining our peace deal for a cheap headline”, warning that the Reform agenda reflects a “narrow, divisive vision” of Britain’s future that could accelerate calls for a united Ireland.
“These are fundamentally unserious proposals from unserious people who haven’t given a second’s thought to Northern Ireland, the layered complexities of our fragile society, or the international support for peace,” Eastwood said.
Legal experts have also warned of the implications.
The Society of Labour Lawyers said the departure from the ECHR and other conventions would likely hinder cross-border cooperation on tackling illegal immigration and could, in fact, increase small boat arrivals, which is the very issue Reform claims to want to solve.
Britain would become an outlier in Europe if it abandoned the ECHR, joining only Russia and Belarus.
Reform’s proposal also includes scrapping legal safeguards that limit the duration of immigration detention, potentially allowing indefinite detention, which could face domestic and international legal challenges.
While Farage and Reform remain buoyed by a recent bump in polling, critics argue that their policies are legally fraught, diplomatically damaging and politically destabilising.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, while sharing some of Farage’s frustrations with international legal constraints, distanced her party from the Reform approach.
She accused Farage of “copying our homework” but promised that the Conservatives would present their own position on treaties like the ECHR at their October conference.
Badenoch stopped short of endorsing any move that would endanger the GFA, suggesting that even within the right of British politics, tampering with Northern Ireland’s peace framework remains a red line.
With a general election potentially over three years away, Farage’s electoral prospects are far from certain.
But his comments have already opened a Pandora’s box of legal and constitutional issues, particularly in Northern Ireland.
As Eastwood bluntly put it, “People on this island see the turmoil in Britain and increasingly want no part of it.”