Tory leadership winner must take ‘very careful look at British Bill of Rights’

The winner of the Tory leadership race should have a “very careful look” at plans for a British Bill of Rights, a Cabinet minister has said, warning that they risk dragging Britain into US-style rows over abortion.

Sir Robert Buckland, a former justice secretary who recently returned to the Cabinet as Wales Secretary warned that the Government’s plans for human rights reform have “sown the seeds of danger”.

Writing for The Telegraph, he said proposals to “elevate certain parts of our existing statute law” to become “rights” risked politicising the courts.

The plans for human rights reform are expected to return to the Commons for a second reading after the end of the Conservative leadership election next month.

But Sir Robert said that either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak should consider slimming the proposals down to avoid them being interpreted too widely.

“This Bill is capable of further improvement ... in order to make sure that it effectively delivers on our manifesto commitments,” he said. “I hope that the winning candidate has an early and very careful look at this issue to make sure that we get it right.”

A Government spokesman insisted the policy would not be changed, arguing that the Bill would allow the Government to more easily deport people and would prevent terrorists from proselytising in prisons.

Sir Robert warned that more political courts could force Britain into US-style rows over abortion if it was made a fundamental right.

“Already, there is talk about an amendment to create a ‘right’ to abortion,” he said. “Whatever people’s views may be about this sensitive subject, Parliament has already legislated for it and its elevation into a ‘right’ risks bringing our courts into the political arena, as in the United States.

“What about socio-economic ‘rights’ to work and receive benefits, so beloved by the Left? All these could be tagged on to this ‘Christmas Tree’ Bill, like outsized baubles.”

The Government’s Bill of Rights Bill was introduced to Parliament in June and replaces the Human Rights Act, which was passed in 1998. It would allow the courts to enforce the rights in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on UK shores.

Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, has also promised that his Bill of Rights would clarify the law for judges so British law is placed above ECHR rulings.

It would also screen out some human rights claims against the Government and limit the extent to which courts can order public bodies to change their behaviour to correct a problem caused by a human rights breach.

Mr Raab said the Bill would “strengthen our UK tradition of freedom, whilst injecting a healthy dose of common sense into the system”.

The Conservatives promised human rights reform at the 2019 election, but Sir Robert warned that the actual plans are not similar enough to the manifesto pledge to avoid scrutiny in the Lords.

Under the Salisbury-Addison convention, peers do not block manifesto pledges from passing through the upper chamber out of respect for a Government’s democratic mandate.

Mr Raab also said he did not believe planned changes to avoid “lawfare” over the British military’s actions overseas and new measures on deportation would solve the problems they claim to address.

His intervention suggests disquiet in the Cabinet over the Government’s plans and could result in changes to Mr Raab’s flagship legislation.

Neither Ms Truss nor Mr Sunak have pledged to remove the UK from the ECHR, despite the European court that enforces it blocking the Government’s attempt to deport migrants to Rwanda in June. The court granted an interim injunction preventing the first flight of asylum seekers from leaving the UK.