Conservatives reveal plans to 'scrap the Human Rights Act'

David Cameron plans to cut ties with European Court of Human Rights unless it will allow British parliament to have a final say over its rulings.

17:54 03 October 2014

It has emerged that the Conservatives are now planning to scrap the Human Rights Act and seize power from Europe if they win the next election.

David Cameron says he plans to cut ties with European Court of Human Rights unless it will allow British parliament to have a final say over its ruling.

A new British Bill of Rights would prevent human rights laws being used by terrorists and criminals to stay in the UK, by travellers to occupy land illegally and by prisoners to demand to vote.

The Conservatives say they will publish the draft before Christmas, with a strategy paper expected imminently. 

However, Isabella Sankey, director of policy at Liberty, describes the plans as "legally illiterate" and "clearly intended to diminish the rights of everyone in Britain.”

She challenges Grayling's "mission creep" statement, noting that if the convention was applied according to the technology and social attitudes of the 1950s – when marital rape and corporal punishment were legal and homosexuality was prohibited – rights protection would "stagnate".