UK Will Never Surrender Powers to WHO, Says Minister

Britain's minister without portfolio Esther McVey arrives to attend a weekly Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in central London on March 19, 2024. Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

The Conservative government would “never” sign away sovereignty to the World Health Organisation (WHO) or allow it to force the UK into imposing national responses to pandemics, a Cabinet minister has said.

Minister without portfolio Esther McVey wrote in The Telegraph on Saturday that it remains the “constitutional right” of nations to make their own decisions on how to respond to national health emergencies, and said that ceding sovereignty is a “red line” for her and her Cabinet colleagues.

She said while she knew Britons might be concerned that international bodies “could acquire powers to force countries to adopt measures and restrictions,” she said, “my ministerial colleagues and I would never give over any such powers to any organisation, including the World Health Organization.”

“Our red lines in the negotiations include not agreeing to anything that cedes sovereignty, protecting our ability to make all of our own domestic decisions on national public health measures, including whether to introduce any lockdowns or restrictions, require vaccinations and mask wearing, and decisions on travel into and out of the country,” Ms. McVey wrote.

International Health Regulations

Ms. McVey made the remarks as the British government and other countries negotiate the WHO’s Pandemic Agreement and discuss draft amendments to the existing International Health Regulations (IHR).

Both texts are subject to agreement at the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, between May 27 and June 1.

The Cabinet minister said that the UK’s continued engagement with the WHO’s Pandemic Agreement and amended IHR is to ensure the UK has access to “global information” about “emerging crises.”

“It would not mean we forfeit our independent national response to the next pandemic,” Ms. McVey said, continuing, “With our red lines for negotiations we will only sign the Pandemic Accord and strengthened International Health Regulations if it is in our national interest to do so.”

The WHO describes the IHR, last updated in 2005, as “an overarching legal framework that defines countries’ rights and obligations in handling public health events and emergencies that have the potential to cross borders.”

The WHO further states the regulations are “an instrument of international law that is legally-binding on 196 countries, including the 194 WHO Member States.” They create “rights and obligations” for members, “including the requirement to report public health events.”

‘Conspiracy Theories’

On Friday, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who served as attorney general during the COVID-19 pandemic, issued a note of caution, writing for The Telegraph that “we must maintain a healthy scepticism of [the WHO’s] proposed ‘Pandemic Treaty’ to ensure that our Government has the freedom to depart from its advice in the future.”

Last week during a speech in the plenary session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanhom Ghebreyesus blamed “conspiracy theories” and a “litany of lies” being spread about the Pandemic Agreement—“even by members of parliament, and in some cases by heads of government”—for presenting possible barriers to the measures being passed next month.

“The pandemic agreement will not give WHO any power to dictate policy to any country,” Mr. Tedros said on March 25.

He then cited Article 24, paragraph 3 of the negotiating text of the agreement, which says that “nothing“ in the agreement ”shall be interpreted as providing“ any WHO official the authority to ”direct, order, alter or otherwise prescribe the domestic laws or policies of any Party, or to mandate or otherwise impose any requirements that Parties take specific actions,” including travel bans, vaccine mandates, or lockdowns.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus holds a press conference at the World Health Organization's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Dec. 14, 2022. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

Mr. Tedros had repeated similar criticisms on Feb. 12—where also he described the international agreement as a “legally-binding pact”—and instead said the Pandemic Agreement was an exercise in national sovereignty.

“Far from ceding sovereignty, the agreement actually affirms national sovereignty and national responsibility in its foundational principles,” Mr. Tedros said, adding, “Indeed, the agreement is itself an exercise of sovereignty.”