Michael Gove to proceed with Tories' plans to scrap human rights act
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Version 0 of 1. Michael Gove, the new justice secretary, is to press ahead with plans to scrap the Human Rights Act which could see Britain pull out of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) if the reforms are rejected by Strasbourg. Conservative party sources said that Gove, who was promoted to the post even though he has previously voiced his support for capital punishment, will implement human rights reforms that had been blocked in the coalition by the Liberal Democrats. Related: Michael Gove bounces back from demotion to lead Tory justice changes The scrapping of the human rights act, a pledge included in the Tory manifesto, is one of the measures to be included in the prime minister’s plans for the first 100 days, when the Queen’s speech is delivered on 27 May. The plans, which would see the human rights act replaced by a British bill of rights, say that the European court of human rights would be “no longer binding over the UK’s supreme court”. The ECHR would also be “no longer able to order a change to UK law” although British citizens would still be entitled to appeal to the Strasbourg-based court. Gove is making clear that, free from the constraints of the coalition, he will implement in full the plans drawn up last year by his predecessor, Chris Grayling. Under those plans, Britain would withdraw from the ECHR if the Council of Europe, the human rights watchdog that upholds the convention, rejects the proposals. The Council of Europe is separate from the EU. A withdrawal from the ECHR, which would be strongly resisted by the former justice secretary Kenneth Clarke and the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, would plunge the UK into a constitutional crisis. It would be resisted by the Scottish government and would place the UK government in breach of the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement of 1998, which was approved by joint referenda on both sides of the Irish border and was lodged at the UN. The measures to be introduced by the Tories in the first 100 days will also include legislation to redraw constituency boundaries and for David Cameron’s referendum on EU membership to be held by the end of 2017. The prime minister confirmed that he had begun talks with EU leaders about his plans, which he is expected to table at an EU summit next month. But Cameron was warned that he could face trouble on Europe as David Davis, the former Tory leadership contender, called on him to demand the right to exercise a UK opt-out from all EU legislation. This would amount to a complete rewriting of the rules of the single market which is not currently on the prime minister’s agenda. Davis told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show that Britain should be given its own “Luxembourg compromise” – a mechanism available to all member states which states they can opt out in areas where there is no national veto if a vital national interest is at stake. The mechanism, which is rarely used, was devised after a row with Charles de Gaulle in the mid 1960s. Lord Mandelson, the former Labour cabinet minister, said that changing the rules of the single market, which are decided by “qualified majority voting” in which no member state has a veto, would work against British interests. The Davis proposal would allow less liberalising states, such as France, to impose protectionist measures. |