Reports have been circulating that the United Kingdom is set to opt-out of major parts of European human rights laws, meaning potential heightened tensions with the EU.
According to reports, Prime Minister Johnson, his aides and ministers are drawing up proposals to severely curb the use of human rights laws in areas in which judges have “overreached”.
The plans under discussion include opt-outs from the Human Rights Act, which could prevent many migrants and asylum seekers from using the legislation to avoid deportation and protect British soldiers against claims relating to overseas operations.
The Act allows British courts to apply the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The move is set to startle the EU, which has been demanding that the UK commits to remaining signed up to the ECHR and keep the Human Rights Act in place as the price of future “law enforcement co-operation” between the bloc and UK.
Sir Keir Starmer accused the Prime Minister of “reigniting old rows” over Brexit instead of focusing on the response to coronavirus.
Writing in The Telegraph, the Labour leader said: “We should be getting on with defeating this virus, not banging on about Europe. Get on with Brexit and defeat the virus. That should be the Government’s mantra.”
Work examining potential opt-outs from the Human Rights Act is being carried out in several Whitehall departments, including Number 10, the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence.
The ECHR, and its European Court of Human Rights, are part of a completely different legal system to the EU. They are both part of the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states including the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom.
In a joint intervention on Sunday, Sir John Major and Tony Blair will urge MPs to vote the Bill down if Mr Johnson fails to remove the provisions on Northern Ireland customs that the government admitted would “break international law in a very specific and limited way”.
They will tell the public: “We both opposed Brexit. We both accept it is now happening. But this way of negotiating, with reason cast aside in pursuit of ideology and cavalier bombast posing as serious diplomacy, is irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice.”
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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