In an interview this week with the BBC, the president of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has warned that it would be a political disaster for the UK to quit the human rights convention.
Judge Dean Spielmann warned that Prime Minister David Cameron should be very careful not to risk the UK’s credibility by defying last year’s ruling by the ECHR on prisoners’ right to vote.
However, despite calling the UK’s possible defiance a “violation of international law”, Mr Spielmann declined to comment on the “political question” of whether the UK would be thrown out of the Council of Europe, which is the international institution that oversees the European Convention on Human Rights, if it did defy the prisoner votes ruling.
He added that, if the UK were to leave the European Convention, it would be a political disaster for “everyone who is dedicated to the effective protection of human rights, not only in Europe but also in the rest of the world”.
It is unlikely that Mr Cameron will be swayed on the issue of votes, however, as he vowed recently that inmates will not be given the right to vote under his government, saying that the idea makes him feel “physically sick”.
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said earlier this week that he was working on proposals for a “radical change” to human rights laws that would curtail the role of the ECHR in the UK and ensure the supremacy of our own Supreme Court.
He appears to be supported in his attempt to distance the UK from EU laws, as earlier this month a group of 95 Conservative MPs wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to give Parliament a national veto over current and future EU laws and the ability to block new EU legislation and repeal existing measures that threaten the UK’s “national interests”.