Replacing the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights

In response to the riots in August 2011, David Cameron was quick to attack the Human Rights Act on the basis that ‘phoney human rights concerns’ must not get in the way of dealing with rioters. ¹ Some days later, in his analysis of the causes of the riots, he fleshed out his view that the Human Rights Act (HRA) was linked to the riots, and gave his solution – a British Bill of Rights: ²

As we consider these questions of attitude and behaviour, the signals that government sends, and the incentives it creates … we inevitably come to the question of the Human Rights Act and the culture associated with it. Let me be clear: in this country we are proud to stand up for human rights, at home and abroad. It is part of the British tradition. But what is alien to our tradition – and now exerting such a corrosive influence on behaviour and morality … is the twisting and misrepresenting of human rights in a way that has undermined personal responsibility. We are attacking this problem from both sides. We’re working to develop a way through the morass by looking at creating our own British Bill of Rights. And we will be using our current chairmanship of the Council of Europe to seek agreement to important operational changes to the European Convention on Human Rights. But this is all frustratingly slow. The truth is, the interpretation of human rights legislation has exerted a chilling effect on public sector organisations, leading them to act in ways that fly in the face of common sense, offend our sense of right and wrong, and undermine responsibility … And as we urgently review the work we’re doing on the broken society … I want to make it clear that there will be no holds barred … and that most definitely includes the human rights … culture.

Deep dissatisfaction with the HRA and a determination to repeal it was reflected in Conservative pronouncements in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and in the Conservative manifesto. ³ But when the Coalition Government was formed, for obvious political reasons, this became a much more difficult issue, given the differing stances taken on it by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats prior to the general election. ⁴ The notion that a rapid repeal of the HRA might be undertaken, based on David Cameron’s pledge to that effect to The Sun in 2006, ⁵ had to be put to rest. A partial and temporary solution – obviously unsatisfactory from a Conservative viewpoint – was found by consigning this issue to a Commission to examine the possibility of creating a British Bill of Rights (BoR). This allowed the uneasy compromise adopted by the two parties to subsist, for a time.