Andrew Boff leaves London Tories after 53 years

One of London's longest-serving Conservative politicians has resigned from the party after 53 years.

Assembly member Andrew Boff said he had been blocked from entering the race to be the Conservative candidate for London mayor because he supports the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

He called the decision "extraordinary and profoundly disappointing".

Susan Hall of the City Hall Conservatives said she "deeply regrets" his resignation but stands resolutely by the party's commitment to leaving the ECHR.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told GB News in October 2025 that anyone who did not agree with leaving the ECHR "should not and cannot stand as a Conservative candidate".

Boff, who joined the party in 1973 and the assembly in 2008, will now serve as an independent London-wide member.

In a statement, he said the convention was not a "left-wing project" but a "safeguard against arbitrary government", pointing out that British Conservatives, including Winston Churchill, helped create it after World War Two.

He argued that people's rights should not depend on whichever party holds a majority in parliament, particularly in a country with no codified constitution, where governments can win large majorities with a minority of the vote.

"These are Conservative values, or at least they were the values of the Conservative Party I joined," he said.

Boff said he had never expected everyone in the party to share his views, but said there was "a profound difference" between disagreeing with someone and "deciding their beliefs disqualify them from even putting themselves forward to serve".

He added: "A political party that cannot tolerate support for fundamental human rights has moved a very long way from the principles that first attracted me to it.

"I have not abandoned my Conservative principles. I believe the party has abandoned some of its own.

"I will not surrender those principles in order to remain a member of any political party."

Hall said of Boff: "Andrew has been a forthright and vocal supporter of Conservative principles, and we thank him for his contribution to our party."

The ECHR was a treaty drawn up by the Council of Europe after World War Two. It is separate from the EU and unrelated to changes after Brexit.

It sets out rights such as the right to life, a fair trial, freedom of expression, and the right to family life, and it bans torture and degrading treatment.

Cases go to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Since the Human Rights Act 1998, UK courts can also apply the convention directly.

The only European countries not part of the treaty are Russia, which was expelled in 2022, and Belarus.

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