London Assembly Chair Andrew Boff has quit the Conservative Party after 53 years of membership, in a row over the party’s commitment to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.
Boff, who has served as a London-wide Assembly Member since 2008, will now sit as an independent. His departure brings to an end more than half a century in the party he joined as a young activist.
He said he had never expected everyone in the party to share his views, but that there was “a profound difference” between disagreeing with someone and “deciding their beliefs disqualify them from even putting themselves forward to serve”. Boff was blocked from seeking the Conservative nomination for London Mayor.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Boff argued that the convention was not a “left-wing project” but a “safeguard against arbitrary government”, created in the aftermath of the Second World War with the support of British Conservatives such as Winston Churchill. He insisted that individual rights should not depend on whichever party happens to be in power — particularly in a country without a codified constitution, where governments can secure large parliamentary majorities despite receiving only a minority of votes cast.
A party spokesman said: “During his time on the London Assembly, and before now as a councillor and council leader, Andrew has been a forthright and vocal supporter of Conservative principles, and we thank him for his contribution to our party.”
“Despite this, we stand resolutely by the party’s commitment to leaving the ECHR, and believe fully that the rights and privileges that we enjoy in this country can be maintained without the need for a foreign court. We will continue to support this policy.”
A long Assembly career
Boff, born in Hillingdon, served as a councillor there between 1982 and 1994 and led Hillingdon Council from 1990 to 1992. He later moved to Hackney, where he served as a councillor from 2005 to 2006. He was elected as a London-wide Assembly Member in 2008 and has campaigned on housing and overcrowding, making London autism-friendly, tackling childhood obesity and the north-south transport divide.
In the 2025-26 year he served as Chair of the London Assembly — the one-year role that chairs Mayor’s Question Time and plenary sessions of the whole Assembly.
His departure is the latest fallout from the party leadership’s hard line on the convention. The ECHR, drafted by the Council of Europe after the Second World War, is separate from the European Union; it sets out rights including the right to life, a fair trial, freedom of expression and the right to family life, and bans torture and degrading treatment.
