UK ‘could pull out of convention on human rights’

Cabinet Minister Chris Grayling said he was “absolutely certain” the Tories would go into the election in 2015 with a plan to change the existing legislation based on Labour’s Human Rights Act which enshrined the convention into British law.

But Mr Grayling’s views are not unanimously held by all Conservatives and Kenneth Clarke, the Minister without Portfolio, warned he would oppose such a move: “We obviously must remain parties to the European Convention on Human Rights. It is extremely important that we are one of the leading members of that and make sure we keep up the pressure that helps us put mainly on countries in the former Soviet Union.”

He added: “We can review the best way of applying it but today’s highly tempestuous, tabloid newspaper-dominated world...you need a convention on human rights.”

Mr Clarke’s pro-European views have conflicted with the Conservative Party’s Euro-sceptic stance in the past and his latest comments may not be echoed by many Tory MPs, frustrated at rulings by the European Court of Human Rights blocking the deportation of the radical cleric Abu Qatada and giving prisoners the right to vote.

Mr Grayling cast doubt on the validity of Britain’s involvement in the convention, claiming the court’s recent rulings had moved a long way from its original aims.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I’ve not ruled anything in, I’ve not ruled anything out. Anyone who sits down and reads it as a document would struggle to find a word they disagreed with.

“It was written in the aftermath of the Second World War, the Holocaust, all the issues in the eastern bloc. What’s happened since then is that the decision making in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has moved that original convention further and further away from the original intentions of its authors.”

The suggestion, however, caused dismay among coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, whose members accused Conservatives of a move to the right after their defeat into third place by Ukip in the Eastleigh by-election.

Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes claimed Mr Grayling’s stance would divide his own party and withdrawal from the convention would change the sort of country Britain was seen as by the rest of the world.

“The convention was agreed after the (Second World) war, led by negotiators who were Tories. It was something that reflected the national consensus and it has been the gold standard of human rights around the world.”