Landmark law to wage war on woke
FREE speech will be made a legal ‘trump card’ under landmark legislation that will rip up Labour’s controversial Human Rights Act.
Tony Blair’s legislation, which enshrined the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic law more than 20 years ago, will be replaced with a new Bill of Rights.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, who is masterminding the major shake-up, has vowed to give ‘overriding importance’ to principles of free speech.
The Bill, pledged in yesterday’s Queen’s Speech and expected to be published early next month, will seek to stave off moves towards European-style privacy laws without Parliament’s approval.
It will also contain measures to prevent foreign criminals dodging deportation by deploying legal challenges under the ‘right to respect for private and family life’.
The law is also expected to set out how rulings by Britain’s top judges will take precedence over those from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
Earlier this year, Mr Raab told the Daily Mail that democratic debate had been ‘whittled away by wokery and political correctness’. He promised his reforms would protect the ability of the Press to expose corruption and wrongdoing, as well as allow individuals to speak their minds.
‘Effectively, free speech will be given what will amount to a trump card status in a whole range of areas,’ Mr Raab said in March.
‘I feel very strongly that the parameters of free speech and democratic debate are being whittled away, whether by the privacy issue or whether it’s wokery and political correctness. I worry about those parameters of free speech being narrowed.’
He also addressed concerns that decisions by unelected judges are gradually introducing privacy laws without the approval of Parliament.
It follows concern at a ruling in favour of the Duchess of Sussex in a privacy dispute against The Mail on Sunday, as well as the rise of ‘cancel culture’ over issues such as women’s and trans rights.
The Bill will make it harder for appeals to reach court under Article 8 of the ECHR, concerning the right to family life.
Up to 70 per cent of foreign criminals who lodge deportation appeals do so under Article 8, claiming it will be a breach of their rights for reasons such as having children in the UK.
But under the new plans they will have to seek permission from the courts before they can bring such a claim.
Human rights groups such as Liberty have described the plan as ‘a blatant, unashamed power grab’, while Labour has said it will ‘oppose the Human Rights Act being ripped to shreds’.