Labour Lord and former Miliband advisor slams Tory plans to scrap the Human Rights Act

Steward Wood, Labour Lord and former senior advisor to Ed Miliband, has criticised the Tories’ plans to scrap the Human Rights Act (HRA).

Writing in The Telegraph (£), Wood points out that although there was no pledge to scrap the HRA in the Queen’s speech on Wednesday Labour – and the public – shouldn’t “be fooled…this was a postponement not a cancellation.”

Wood goes on to note that although the British Bill of Rights – which the Tories would use to replace the HRA – has been nine years in the making, it’s still not clear what would be in it.

He explains that this situation has been brought about by a number of contradictions, which include the argument that the HRA is related to Europe. Wood points out this isn’t true, saying

“the Convention, derived from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, contains no divisible set of human rights that are European: the rights apply to all people in virtue of their being human, not European humans…It is absurd to say that support for the Human Rights Act has anything to do with pro-Europeanism.”

He also goes on to argue that despite Tory claim, the HRA doesn’t undermine British sovereignty nor does it prioritise “the rights of criminals over victims”.

Wood ends by lambasting the Government’s plans to introduce a British Bill of Rights with the argument that you can keep “the good bits of the HRA”. He says this “isn’t just wrong, but dangerously wrong.”

Instead, he warns that the Tories proposals would mean “that the state distinguish between deserving and undeserving bearers of human rights.”