2 October 2014

As expected, David Cameron pledged to scrap the Human Rights Act in his speech to Conservative party conference.

On human rights he said, “Let me put this very clearly: we do not require instruction on this from judges in Strasbourg. So at long last, with a Conservative government after the next election, this country will have a new British Bill of Rights, to be passed in our parliament, rooted in our values. And as for Labour’s Human Rights Act? We will scrap it, once and for all.”

Cameron did not explicitly commit to withdrawing from the European Convention of Human Rights, a move which would have far reaching consequences. Commentators have pointed out that Cameron’s promise to scrap the Human Rights Act has been floated for some years, yet he has still failed to outline what would be in a “British Bill of Rights” and how it would differ from what it was replacing.

Dominic Grieve QC, former Attorney General said, “It seems to me that one has to think very carefully about what the consequences are in deciding that you can cherry-pick the obligations that you are going to accept. Whilst it may be perfectly possible to disregard them you are creating a degree of anarchy in the international order that you are trying to promote”. It is speculated that the reason for Grieve’s departure as Attorney General was his stance on Human Rights legislation.

One of the many critics of Cameron’s plan, Amnesty UK’s campaigns director Tim Hancock, said: “Theresa May made much in her speech about how we must stand up and fight for human rights abroad, it makes absolutely no sense to denigrate those same rights at home.

“It’s exasperating to hear the prime minister vow to tear up the Human Rights Act again – so he can draft ‘his own’. Human rights are not in the gift of politicians to give. They must not be made a political plaything to be bestowed or scrapped on a whim. It’s time politicians accepted that they too have to follow the rules and that those rules include the civilising human rights standards Churchill championed.”

Watch this space, as an in-depth report detailing the implications of withdrawing from the European Convention of Human Rights is soon to be released by the IER.