Political debate has intensified this year around Britain’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in relation to immigration and asylum cases.

The convention has faced criticism from parts of the political right, who argue it limits the government’s ability to deport people without the right to remain in Britain.

Both the Conservative Party and Reform UK have said they would withdraw from the convention as part of efforts to reduce immigration.

The Labour government has said it will not leave the ECHR, but ministers are reviewing human rights law to make deportations easier.

Proposed changes include reforms to Article 3, which prohibits torture or inhuman or degrading treatment, and Article 8, which protects the right to family life.

Both articles have been used in court cases to block deportations.

Mary-Ann Stephenson, who became chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission at the beginning of this month, described the convention as “really important” and said leaving it would weaken protections everyone relies on.

Ms Stephenson said the ECHR is “embedded in UK law through the Human Rights Act, and it provides rights that protect all of us.”

She pointed to cases including the John Worboys ruling, which established that police can be held accountable for serious investigative failures, and another involving an elderly couple threatened with separation due to care needs.

She said such cases showed why incorporating convention rights into domestic law matters.

Ms Stephenson said: “These are all sorts of cases where most people would think that’s the sort of thing we would want to see.

“Those are the sorts of rights we would want to have.

“And so I think leaving the European Convention is a mistake. It weakens the rights that all of us depend on.”

She also warned there was a “real risk” of misleading narratives around human rights cases, citing research from the University of Oxford that highlighted inaccurate media coverage.

“I think it’s really important that we have honesty in the way that we talk about human rights,” she said, adding that the demonisation of migrants can make life “very, very difficult” not only for migrants, but also for ethnic minority British citizens.