“Even by the standards of post-Brexit Britain, this is a reckless hill to die on.”
James is Belfast Live’s dedicated Political Reporter covering news and politics across Northern Ireland.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has suggested that Britain should re-write the Good Friday Agreement(Image: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
Every so often, a politician will make you wonder whether they truly grasp the country they claim to lead. Suella Braverman’s latest crusade of planning to tear up the UK’s commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and rewriting the Good Friday Agreement in the process is one of those moments.
The Good Friday Agreement is not just another dusty treaty gathering mould in a government archive. It is a hard-won promise that the people of Northern Ireland, British, Irish or both, can live side by side without fear of the violence that once defined daily life. Anyone old enough to remember the Troubles doesn’t need reminding of what’s at stake. For those too young to remember, ask your parents. Or visit the countless murals and memorials that still stand as warnings of what happens when politics fails.
And yet, Braverman thinks this precious peace deal can be casually reworked to suit her latest war on “unelected judges” in Strasbourg. Her pitch is simple enough that the ECHR is apparently blocking Britain from “taking back control”. From deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, to making it easier to ignore uncomfortable court rulings, the argument goes that we need out. And if that means rewriting the settlement that ended 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland? So be it.
It’s breathtakingly reckless. The ECHR was drafted in the aftermath of the Second World War, with Britain at the forefront. Its values are our values. Human dignity, basic rights, protections from state overreach. In Northern Ireland, it is more than just legal text; it’s a safeguard. It reassures communities that their rights are protected not just by London but by wider European standards too. Strip that away and you don’t just tweak a paragraph here and there, you chip at the foundations of trust that hold the peace together.
Braverman tries to wave this all away by claiming the Agreement has been “amended” before. She’s right, but also completely wrong. Practical updates are not the same as gutting its human rights backbone. Nor is it true that the British courts alone can suddenly fill the gap. The ECHR is the independent referee both sides signed up to. Trusting Westminster to police itself on human rights, especially when ministers have appeared so eager to ignore them, is a fantasy.
There’s something depressingly familiar about this whole plan. Once again, Northern Ireland is treated like an inconvenient afterthought and a problem to be bulldozed rather than understood. Once again, Westminster politicians who wouldn’t dare risk peace in their own backyards think nothing of playing constitutional games with a region that still bears the scars of conflict. It’s easy to talk about “sovereignty” when you don’t have to live with the consequences.
What’s so frustrating is that none of this is necessary. If Braverman and her allies want to pick a fight with the ECHR, they’re free to try. But to drag the Good Friday Agreement into it is to court real danger for the sake of a talking point. The risks are clear, from political instability to legal uncertainty, and a message to communities in Northern Ireland that the UK’s word is disposable if it gets in the way of a culture war.
Even by the standards of post-Brexit Britain, this is a reckless hill to die on. Sovereignty is not about trampling over hard-won agreements because they’re politically inconvenient. It’s about living up to your commitments even when they’re difficult. Especially when they’re difficult.
If you think this is all overblown, ask the families who lived through bombings, shootings, and nights wondering if their loved ones would come home. They know how fragile peace can be when politicians forget what it took to build it.
There is plenty the government could be doing to make life better for people across the UK. Fix the health service. Tackle poverty. Bring communities together instead of stoking division. But rewriting the Good Friday Agreement to score cheap political points? That should never be on the table.
So here’s a simple message for Suella Braverman and those tempted to follow her down this dangerous path: hands off the Good Friday Agreement. Some things are too precious to gamble with.
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