Labour politicians never tire of defending the European Convention on Human Rights against anyone who suggests leaving it. When the ‘Labour Growth Group’ called on the government to take Thames Water into special administration, they claimed, “creditors take losses” and “the balance sheet is reset.” The ECHR actually says otherwise…
The European Court of Human Rights’s guidance helpfully explains: “Finally, Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 extends to bonds which are negotiable on the capital market, are transferred from one bearer to another and whose value may fluctuate depending on a number of factors (Mamatas and Others v. Greece, 2016, § 90; see also Pintar and Others v. Slovenia, 2021, § 92).”
Translated from EU-speak, this basically means that creditors have the right to demand compensation under EU law – including in cases like nationalisation. Even Starmer’s team admitted “water sector creditors could demand compensation immediately, diverting critical funds from our essential public services.” All the significant nationalisations undertaken in modern times in the UK have seen their creditors bailed out:
Bookmark this from Andy Burnham:
2029: “that’s when the next election will be.”
May 2027: “Absolutely not.”
“No election any time soon.”
“All of this speculation on an early election, I can knock that dead.”