EXCLUSIVE: Private letter from Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood re ECHR

Labour seeks replacement for UK’s current ECHR judge, stepping down in Sept, all details

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2025

Benefits c. £340,000/yr, 12 wks paid leave, free medical, maternity, incapacity & life insurance

Exclusive: A copy of a letter seen by Facts4EU and shown to GB News demonstrates beyond doubt Sir Keir Starmer’s 100% commitment to staying in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). This is the same court in Strasbourg, France, which prevented the deportation of illegal migrants to Rwanda and which has ruled against the UK on many other immigration cases.

Despite this, and despite the popular policy moves of Reform UK against staying in the ECHR, the letter from Lord Chancellor, the Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP, makes it clear to Britain’s top judges that Labour is committed to sending one of the country’s finest legal minds to the French-based, European court for the next nine years.

From The Lord Chancellor's private letter to judges

“As the Prime Minister has made clear, this Government is unequivocally committed to the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Court of Human Rights and its 46 judges are crucial to the operation of the Convention and the protection of human rights across Europe.
“I wish you the best in your application.”

- writes Lord Chancellor & Justice Secretary the Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP

Crown Copyright

As part of our investigations for our current mini-series on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Facts4EU research organisation and think-tank has uncovered a copy of a letter from the Lord Chancellor, the Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP, to candidates for the prestigious position as the UK’s sole judge on the panel of a court capable of overruling the UK’s Supreme Court.

In it, she outlines a large amount of information including an invitation to a “closed event” as well as detailed information about the full remuneration and ‘generous’ benefits package on offer in Strasbourg, France, where the salary will be tax-free.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, in association with CIBUK.Org, is able to bring this exclusively to its readers and to GB News’ Membership, following our revelations on Friday :-

The EU is not, and never has been, a Party to the European Convention on Human Rights and is not, and never has been, a Member of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

It has been prevented from joining by a ruling of its own European Court of Justice.

And yet it insists that the UK and all member states must be a member of the ECHR.

The policies of the two main pro-Brexit parties

'The first thing I'd do'

Excerpts - Interview with ITV, 16 April 2025

Reform UK's Leader has been consistent on the European Convention (and thereby its Court) from the beginning.

“Well, the first thing we have to do, is we have to get rid of the ECHR," he said, when asked about his immediate plans on entering No.10.
“We have to get back the ability to decide. Can we really control our borders? Who comes and lives here?... You know what? I think three quarters of the country would cheer to the rafters.”
- Nigel Farage MP, Leader of Reform UK

Several hours after our first ECHR report in this series had been published on Friday, Conservative leader the Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP gave a speech about the same topic. Whereas Nigel Farage's views seem to come from the aspect that sovereignty is paramount, Ms Badenoch's approach is more process-driven and involves setting up an enquiry.

'Kemi Badenoch exposes the laws and treaties holding Britain back'

Excerpts - Speech on Friday 06 June 2025

“The ECHR is now being used in ways never intended by its original authors. It should be a shield to protect, instead it’s become a sword.
A sword used to attack democratic decisions and common sense. This use of litigation as a political weapon is what I am calling lawfare.”

She went on to announce a new ‘Lawfare Commission’ to report back to her in due course on consequences and how this might or might not be done.

“I won’t commit my Party to leaving the ECHR or other treaties without a clear plan to do so…”
“It would be absolutely unforgivable for a political party to say they’re going to leave the ECHR.”

Below is a summary of the letter from the Lord Chancellor, but firstly, an appeal.

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The private letter from the Lord Chancellor to the UK's top judges

In the 12-page Word document running to over 4,400 words, Shabana Mahmood starts with an uncompromising statement that:

"this Government is unequivocally committed to the European Convention on Human Rights" and that "The European Court of Human Rights and its 46 judges are crucial"

The Lord Chancellor then sets out the requirements of the position, whilst admitting that there is no formal job specification. Included is the technical experience expected, before she describes the remuneration and benefits package in considerable detail.

Language requirements - How the French exert a subtle but powerful influence over the entire panel of 46 judges

Somewhat surprisingly given that the business of all EU and European institutions is conducted in the lingua franca of English, candidates are required to have at least “a passive knowledge of French, or a commitment to acquire such knowledge in due course, so as to be able to play a full part in the work of the Court.” In practice this means rather more, as the document goes on to stipulate that judges “must be able to understand case documents in both languages.”

Members of the Facts4EU team speak several languages, some fluently, but the ability to read complex legal arguments in another language requires a very high standard of that language indeed.

France tests the French language skills of candidates using L’Institut Francais to decide if they meet the required standard in order to be considered. This has a subtle but powerful influence over the composition of the panel of 46 judges.

A great many countries out of the 46 in the ECHR have no cultural or historical connection with France and French is not taught in their schools. This means that successful candidates are those who have an unusually strong interest in French life and culture, as they will have had to go to some effort to learn French in the past. We contend they are therefore more likely to be more favourably disposed to France, which is the ultimate source of the 'Code Napoléon' form of law. We will explain the difference between this and English Common Law in a future report in this mini-series.

Remuneration and benefits package

1. Summary

Annual gross salary equivalent to a normal taxpayer: Over £340,000 per year
Annual paid leave: 12 weeks
Other benefits : All medical costs (in any country of choice), maternity, temporary incapacity, invalidity and life insurance

2. The breakdown

The document from Shabana Mahmood goes into great detail about the benefits the successful British judge can expect. Here are the main elements:-

Gross annual salary in 2024 : € 205,150.30
Deductions : € 4,551.48 (for certain compulsory benefits)
Net : € 200,598.80 (approx £170,000 GBP)

The document confirms that “Salaries and emoluments paid by the Council of Europe are not subject to income tax (Article 18b of the General Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Council of Europe).” It does go on to recommend that each judge seek personal tax advice, however.

On the assumption that the salary will be paid tax-free, which is the norm in most cross-European institutions, the £170,000 is worth around double that amount to someone who would pay tax, as the vast majority do.

Annual leave

Technically the ECHR sits all year round but in practice the Court has what are termed 'light schedule periods', in effect judicial vacations, which are determined by the President of the Court. These are distributed throughout the year with two weeks at Christmas, one week in February, two weeks at Easter, six weeks in the summer from mid-July to the end of August, and one week at the end of October/beginning of November. The dates vary slightly each year as they are based on the French school holidays.

And finally, sex….

Each country has to put forward three candidates when the current judge retires. The Lord Chancellor, the Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood states that:

"The Council of Europe has asked the UK to put forward three nominees (including at least one male and one female)".

We assure readers that we are quoting verbatim. The third category of candidate, after 'male' and 'female', is not defined nor even named.

Aside from confusing the Facts4EU team initially, two issues arise. The first is the standard argument against 'quotas'. Where the best three candidates for this position happen to be either all men (or all women), one of these best-qualified candidates will have to be dropped and a lesser-qualified candidate substituted - either a woman (or man), or the third category which neither Shabana Mahmood nor the Court seem able to name.

The second and more vexing question arises from something which could bring the UK into conflict with the ECHR. On 16 April this year, the UK’s Supreme Court ruled in effect that there are two genders: men and women. Specifically they ruled that a man and a woman are determined by their biological sex, regardless of any ‘change of sex’ certificates.

Two weeks later on 30 April 2025, Shabana Mahmood, both Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, was questioned by Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights where she was asked about the Supreme Court's decision.

"It is an important judgment and I welcome the clarification from the Supreme Court on what has become a vexed question of the interaction between what is termed legal sex or biological sex and what those terms mean in the Equality Act. We really welcome it.

Quite obviously this is not the view of the judges of the ECHR.

Observations

The letter from the Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, obtained by Brexit Facts4EU is informative in many ways.

Firstly, it confirmed in detail the full remuneration and benefits package for ECHR judges. It had proved very difficult to obtain this information in the usual, formal ways.

Secondly, there is the question of the language requirement. Whilst at first glance this might seem to be merely a detail - and one which could be irritating for many well-qualified candidates whose legal experience is first-class but whose French is non-existent - it does in fact have an influence on the make-up of the ECHR panel.

It is a simple fact that the vast majority of international business of all the organisations in the EU and further afield into Europe as a whole is conducted in English. Whilst the French have been fighting a rearguard action against this, in most institutions they accept reluctantly that the battle has been lost. Notwithstanding, it seems that the Council of Europe (home of the European Convention on Human Rights) and the ECtHR remain bastions of 'La francophonie'.

This is, in our view, an absurdity and should be removed from the eligibility requirements forthwith.

Selecting judges by sex (gender)

Finally there is the thorny question of sex, or - to put it more correctly - gender. Whilst we are fully in favour of a much better gender balance in all professions, setting a quota is not the way to achieve this. On top of this, we have the ridiculous fact of the ECHR recognising more than two genders and then being unable to define - or even name - the third gender.

COMING NEXT...

In the next part in this mini-series we will reveal another extraordinary set of information about the actual composition of this court which claims supremacy over the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The details we shall be providing will surprise readers, we are absolutely sure. Don't miss it tomorrow!

Please, please help us to carry on our vital work in defence of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom by donating today. Thank you.

[ Sources: ECHR | Council of Europe | Facts4EU sources ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 09 June 2025

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Reader Comments 19

1. Ashley Great Britain , Monday, June 09, 2025, 06:23:

The whole thing is highly dubious and as the ECHR has ultimate authority over our courts, we are not free and independent.
-
It's clear to see already that the Conservatives would never leave it.
-
We are very fortunate to have Reform who state that one of their actions would be to leave the ECHR.
As part of Brexit the UK should have left EU institutions like this without question.
-
The UK already has laws and courts to preside over us. Our law and judicial system has been honed over hundreds of years. There should be some changes and improvements to it but, ultimately it's all we need and all we should have.

2. Sparky , Monday, June 09, 2025, 07:04:

Some nice catchy slogans. Nice and simple and easy. As usual Farage is doing what he needs to do to make headlines but is thin on detail. Leave the ECHR, then what?? The ECHR is included in the GF Agreement and the TCA.
.
International Law, not just the ECHR has a non-refoulement principle which forbids countries from deporting people to a country which could threaten their life or freedom based on things like their race, religion or nationality. Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iran, some states in Africa will fall into this category.

3. LuxuryBalloon , Monday, June 09, 2025, 07:45:

We need to leave the ECHR if we want to:
1/ Ban abortion
2/ Re-instate the blanket ban on LGB people serving in the army
3/ Ban women from taking on combat positions on the front line
4/ Restrict the press freedom of the left-wing media
5/ Ban same-sex marriages
6/ Reduce LGBTQ+ rights, including denying custody or adoption rights.
7/ Ban prisoners from voting in elections.
8/ Widen our extensive surveillance capabilities, remove constrained mass data collection and reduce oversight.
9/ Restrict protest rights
10/ Reduce our standards in prisons and psychiatric facilities.

4. Gazzablack , Monday, June 09, 2025, 08:00:

3, LB
.
Condom boy. - A prime example of the danger of using puberty blockers..
.
Public notice
.
Don't take puberty blockers, don't be like condom boy

5. LuxuryBalloon , Monday, June 09, 2025, 08:06:

We need to leave this he ECHR if we want:
11/ Mandatory loyalty oaths for all public sector workers
12/ Mandatory deportation of non-citizens convicted of any criminal offence, regardless of family ties or length of residence.
13/ Indefinite detention of Ayers without judicial review.
14/ Mandatory reporting requirements for all non-citizens to police stations weekly.
15/ Withdrawal of citizenship from naturalised citizens who critics government policy.
16/ Prohibition on public gatherings of more than 10 people without government permits.
17/ Prohibition on trade union strikes in all sectors
18/ Reintroduction of capital punishment for various crimes
19/ Mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years for drug possession
20/ Banning of foreign language use in government buildings

6. LuxuryBalloon , Monday, June 09, 2025, 08:13:

4 Gazza … which of the 20 actions in the ‘Manifesto for Britain’ don’t you like?

7. Gazzablack , Monday, June 09, 2025, 08:24:

2, sparkless
.
Most things are simple and easy.
Complicated is the weapon by which those who don't want to do something can justify not doing that something.
.
A simple repeal of the legislation that incorporated the ECHR into UK law is sufficient
We will still be in the ECHR , but not bound by the ECHR.
Just as we were since the formation of the ECHR.

8. KB , Monday, June 09, 2025, 12:28:

LB (3 and 5): Most if not all those items are covered by UK laws, which often pre-date ECHR.
We can elect governments which either remove or strengthen our rights, and it can be argued that is the correct way.
We are supposed to be a democracy, and if the majority don't want prisoners to vote, then maybe that is the way it should be.
However, I also think we don't need to remove ourselves from ECHR. It concerns me that people are using the asylum problems as an excuse to do so.
All we need to do is suspend the relevant parts of the treaty, as other nations have done.

9. LuxuryBalloon , Monday, June 09, 2025, 13:05:

8 KB You make some good points.
‘We are supposed to be a democracy’ … but that does not have to stop us from democratically electing a government that wants to restrict democracy.

10. LuxuryBalloon , Monday, June 09, 2025, 13:43:

4 Gazza … I knew you would like all the 20 actions we can do as soon as we are out of the ECHR.

19 comments, page 1 of 2

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