Senior Tories urge PM to curb the use of human rights laws in UK courts

Leading QC argues for temporary override in cases relating to soldiers on the battlefield

BORIS JOHNSON could use his majority to depart from human rights laws in areas where European judges have “overreached”, under a plan being discussed by senior Tories.

The Prime Minister is being urged to declare that laws such as those providing safeguards to soldiers would apply “notwithstanding” the Human Rights Act.

The move would form part of rolling back the influence of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which Cabinet ministers have accused of distorting the 67-year-old European Convention on Human Rights.

Today, Martin Howe, an influential Brexiteer QC, sets out the proposal as a temporary measure that could be used to curb the use of human rights laws in UK courts, in particular cases where ministers believe the Strasbourg court has effectively created new legislation that goes further than the 1953 convention. The Human Rights Act enables British courts to apply the ECHR so cases do not need to be taken directly to Strasbourg.

Such a move is being discussed by senior Conservatives as a way to help deliver the official Vote Leave pledge to “take back control” of laws.

Last week The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that Mr Johnson was preparing to reject EU demands to guarantee that the UK would continue to be bound by the ECHR after December.

The report sparked an outcry from campaigners who claimed that the move showed that the Conservatives were planning to leave the ECHR. Labour questioned why such a departure was being considered now when the ECHR is not directly linked to the EU.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, highlighted the UK position on the issue as an example of a “serious” divide between Brussels and the UK. He confirmed Mr Johnson’s negotiators “do not wish formally to commit to continuing to apply the European Convention on Human Rights”.

Writing in this newspaper, Mr Howe, who advised the European Research

Group of Eurosceptic Tories, says the Government was “absolutely right to refuse to lock Britain into future membership” of the ECHR. He warns that “serious problems” caused by the Human Rights Act, introduced by Tony Blair, and the Strasbourg court, “will need to be tackled before too long”.

Mr Howe states that the ECHR has been “transformed by judgments of the Strasbourg Court which claim to ‘interpret’” the convention but actually create “doctrines” that are sometimes “demonstrably contrary to the intentions of the states who drew up the original convention”.

Mr Howe, who sat on a commission set up by David Cameron to examine the Human Rights Act, calls for Mr Johnson to replace the legislation with a “new home-grown UK Bill of Rights”, which could lead to “the more effective protection of rights where they deserve to be protected”.

He adds: “Pending such a longer term reform, one possibility could be for Parliament to lay down that certain laws – such as those governing the armed forces in conflicts – should apply notwithstanding the Human Rights Act, in order to prevent aberrant doctrines of the Strasbourg court being followed in UK courts. If it proves impossible to reach a satisfactory resolution, it may be necessary to leave open the door to the more radical step of withdrawing from the ECHR – not to escape the Convention itself, but to end the obligation to comply with ... every one of the Strasbourg court’s misinterpretations.”

In 2015, Michael Fallon, the then defence secretary, said there was “a strong case” for suspending the Human Rights Act when UK troops are in action overseas.

Several Cabinet ministers, including Priti Patel and Dominic Raab, have warned that the ECHR has been repeatedly “abused” by European judges.

Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s most senior adviser, has previously attacked the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for judgments, based on the ECHR, requiring the UK to give prisoners the right to vote, and blocking the deportation of “dangerous” foreign criminals.

He has warned that voters would expect the jurisdiction of European judges to end in the UK as part of the Brexit process.

‘The Government was right to refuse to lock Britain into being a future member of the ECHR’