MPs concluded on Friday (March 1st) that the second reading debate on the Human Rights Act 1998 (Repeal and Substitution) Bill would repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 and provide for a new bill of rights and responsibilities for the UK.
The Bill was introduced by Charlie Elphicke MP, who said that the Act had transformed human rights in the UK in ways that are “wholeheartedly rejected” by the British people.
Over the weekend, much has been written about senior Conservative MPs, who want to pull the country out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), with Justice Secretary Chris Grayling claiming that a future Tory majority government would scrap the Act, which enshrines the ECHR in domestic law.
In addition, Home Secretary Teresa May has allegedly said she would go further and remove the UK from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights altogether.
Many Conservatives have welcomed these reports, as the party is hurting badly from its drubbing in the Eastleigh by-election, where it came third.
However, critics warn that ministers who go down this path risk making the UK a pariah state alongside Belarus, which is the only European country not to have signed the ECHR, and accuse them of pandering to the far right of the party.
There also seems to be confusion over whether it is the Human Rights Act or the European Convention the ministers want to scrap but both courses of action are being blocked by the Conservatives’ co-governors, the Liberal Democrats.
The Government has been at odds with Strasbourg over a number of judgements of late, including the ruling that some prisoners should be given the vote and blocking the deportation of radical cleric Abu Qatada.