Scots human rights chief condemns Tory EU threat

Chief Scottish Political Correspondent

Monday 4 March 2013

THE Scottish Human Rights Commissioner has condemned Conservative threats to repeal UK legislation on the issue, saying it would make Britain the first country in the developed world to have taken such a backwards step.

ALAN MILLER: Commissioner called move a backwards step. controversial: Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said a majority Conservative government would repeal the Human Rights Act. Picture: Reuters

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ROBBIE DINWOODIE CHIEF SCOTTISH POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Professor Alan Miller, Scottish Human Rights Commissioner, spoke out after UK Justice Secretary Chris Grayling made the controversial threat despite the Prime Minister pledging there would be no "lurch to the right" by the Tories to counter the surge by UKIP that pushed the Tories into third place in the Eastleigh by-election.

Mr Grayling said he could not conceive of a situation in which a majority Conservative government would not repeal the Human Rights Act and withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights.He said: "We cannot go on with a situation where people who are a threat to our national security, or who come to Britain and commit serious crimes, are able to cite their human rights when they are clearly wholly unconcerned for the human rights of others. We need a dramatically curtailed role for the European court of human rights in the UK."But Professor Miller said: "As far as I am aware this would be the first time any country in the developed world would have repealed fundamental human rights legislation."It would mark a retreat from the accountability to the courts in the UK and Europe and would send out a very negative message to the rest of the world, undermining our whole human rights system."He said last year Britain had used its time in the rotating chairmanship of the Council of Europe attempting to undermine the position of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which polices the convention, but had been given short shrift by other nations.The Tories had also sought to push a UK Bill of Rights, but this was rejected by their Liberal Democrat Coalition partners, who saw it as another clear attempt to undermine the ECHR.The latest comment came as David Cameron pledged to hold the centre ground in British politics. He said: "The battle for Britain's future will not be won in lurching to the right, nor by some cynical attempt to calculate the middle distance between your political opponents and then planting yourself somewhere between them. That is lowest-common-denominator politics and it gets you nowhere. "The right thing to do is to address the things people care about; to fix yourself firmly in what Keith Joseph called the 'common ground' of politics, and that's what we have done."Foreign Secretary William Hague contradicted Mr Grayling's claim that repealing the Human Rights Act would be in the next party manifesto, describing this as speculation.Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat and human rights defender, said there appeared to be contradictions between what the Prime Minister and some of his ministers were saying.Labour accused Mr Cameron of losing his grip. A spokesman said: "It's clear David Cameron's response to his disastrous result in Eastleigh is a big lurch to the right. He is a weak prime minister who is caving in to the demands of the right-wing MPs in his party."Tory right-winger Mark Field added to the row by saying action of this kind was needed now, not in the next manifesto. He said: "We are in government. Either do something now and call the Liberal Democrats' bluff on this, or stay quiet. It's that sort of cynicism, it's just politicians saying words and not doing anything."

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Scots human rights chief condemns Tory EU threat

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