The attorney-general had a couple of opportunities at law officers' questions yesterday to affirm his government's adherence to the Human Rights Act and its commitment to maintaining UK membership of the European Convention on Human Rights. One must accept that the Conservative manifesto committed the party to repeal of the Human Rights Act (though it is noticeable that even with the cushion of support from the DUP the May government has not introduced the necessary repeal Bill) but the HRA merely domesticates the ECHR. Repeal would return us to the situation where aggrieved persons would have to spend money to go to Strasbourg for judgment but it would not take away their ECHR rights. Reneging on the ECHR is a different matter.
As a lawyer, Sir Geoffrey Cox would have chosen his words carefully. He rightly marked the contribution which the nations of the UK have made towards the formulation of human rights and the drafting of the European Convention. However, he implied a future in which citizens of England and Wales would have to rely on the common law and precedent. He is clearly in the same camp as his xenophobic prime minister,
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