Tory plans to scrap human rights legislation are "dangerous" and would inflict "immense damage" on the UK's international reputation, according to the legal affairs minister.
Roseanna Cunningham said the controversial proposals were evidence that Prime Minister David Cameron and his colleagues were "running scared of Ukip".
The Scottish Government strongly opposes the Conservative plans to replace the Human Rights Act, which enshrines the European Convention on Human Rights in British law, with a British Bill of Rights if elected in 2015.
In order to be implemented in Scotland, the move would require the consent of the Scottish Parliament and Ms Cunningham called on MSPs of all parties to make clear that consent would not be given.
Speaking at Holyrood, Ms Cunningham said: "David Cameron and (UK Justice Secretary) Chris Grayling are running scared of Ukip and pandering to the europhobic extremists in their own party.
"These are dangerous proposals which threaten the rights all of us enjoy. If they were ever implemented they would inflict immense damage on both the UK's international reputation and on international efforts to protect and secure human rights around the world."
Ms Cunningham referred to a landmark Glasgow case in which a woman with multiple sclerosis won a ruling that the decision to cut her welfare benefits under the so-called "bedroom tax" breached her human rights.
She said: "It does sound very much like an excuse for depriving the most vulnerable people in society of hard, enforceable rights."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article