Liberty responds to reports the Bill of Rights is delayed

Martha Spurrier, Liberty’s Director, said:

“It is a relief to hear that the Government’s Bill of Rights is reportedly being shelved. Overhauling the Human Rights Act was not a manifesto commitment and would have been the biggest blow to human rights in the UK in a generation.

“The proposed Bill of Rights was little more than a rights removal bill. It would have taken away rights from all of us, including making it harder for people to get justice when there is wrongdoing. This includes disabled people who have used the Human Rights Act to challenge their disability benefits being removed, it includes the family of the 97 killed at Hillsborough who used it to find out the truth about what happened to their loved ones, and it includes the victims of John Worboys who used the Act to force the police to investigate his crimes. At its core, the Bill was little more than a shallow attempt to put the Government beyond accountability, and we welcome this decision to drop it.

“It is vital now that the new Government takes this opportunity to strengthen our rights, not weaken them further by bringing these dangerous plans back in another guise. Instead, the Government must put equality, fairness and human rights at the core of what they do going forward.”