A former Government top lawyer has claimed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson should suspend human rights laws to prevent legal challenges to the easing of the coronavirus lockdown rules in the “dangerous” weeks ahead.

Sir Stephen Laws, who is the former first parliamentary counsel responsible for drafting all Government laws, said that the complexity of the new rules meant they risked becoming the target of legal actions over human rights that could, in turn, undermine the fight against the coronavirus.

In such “dangerous and unusual” times, the Government could not risk the courts overturning its policy “in a restoration of the use of the law for politics by other means,” said Sir Stephen in a report for the think tank Policy Exchange where he is a senior fellow.

He urged the Government to consider derogating from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) until the end of the pandemic to avoid the public safety measures approved by Parliament being overturned in the European courts.

Sir Stephen said: “A situation of this sort involves a need for individuals to sacrifice some of their freedoms and liberties, if only because their individual interest in the maintenance and stability of the society to which they belong needs to be given the highest priority,

“The balance, as struck in less dangerous times, no longer applies.”

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