By Tony O’Reilly-
The Uk’s new government under Liz Truss will shelve plans for a Bill of Rights , which was aimed at giving British judges the power to ignore rulings from the European Court of Human Rights
The Sun’s political editor revealed the news on Twitter..
The Bill of Rights, conceived under former justice secretary and deputy prime minister Dominic Raab, was intended to ensure Britain’s Supreme Court had legal supremacy, and ECHR decisions did not always need to be followed by British courts.
The reforms in the Bill of Rights Bill had been due to repeal the Human Rights Act, removing the statutory obligation on UK courts to take account of Strasbourg case law and to read legislation compatibly with Convention rights entirely. It makes further changes to significantly alter the UK’s human rights framework.
Ministers are understood to be deeply concerned about the overall drafting of the bill, which was due to have its second reading on Monday.
There were also advanced plans for amendments to the bill by opposition MPs, including one on expanding abortion rights from the Labour MP Stella Creasy, requiring a free vote on a conscience issue.
The legislation was introduced to parliament in June to replace the 1998 Human Rights Act, with a number of changes including an intent to entrench the primacy of British law over rulings from the ECHR. It would also place new restrictions on how human rights can be used in claims against the government. Raab had pledged it would cement in law greater freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
A Whitehall source said the bill was now “unlikely to progress in its current form” and that there was a widespread review on the most “effective means to deliver objectives through legislative agenda”. Another said there were issues with the drafting, describing it as a “complete mess”
Raab, who was replaced as head of the justice department by Brandon Lewis on Tuesday, had planned for the bill would reinforce parliament’s role as the ultimate decision maker and strengthen rights such as freedom of speech.
The idea is believed to have been sparked after The Supreme Court overruled the government’s decision to prorogue Parliament last year, and was accelerated after The ECHR earlier this year issued last minute injunctions to prevent a handful of asylum seekers being deported to Rwanda until a legal challenge in the UK was settled- effectively blocking the government’s much criticised plans to send migrants to Rwanda.
The former government had hoped that the Bill of Rights Bill would introduce reforms to human rights legislation in the UK that go much further than the recommendations of the Human Rights Act Review.
The IHRAR report called for amendments to the Human Rights Act to clarify that UK legislation and case law should be applied before Strasbourg caselaw, and that laws should only be read down to be compatible with human rights after applying ordinary principles of statutory interpretation.