Liz Truss to give government powers to override human rights court

Prime minister resurrects plan for ECHR override

Liz Truss has said she will bring in new powers that will allow the government to overrule human rights rulings by the European court.

During her speech to Tory conference the prime minister said the Home Secretary Suella Braverman would be in charge of overseeing the passage of the legislation.

It comes after Ms Truss’s incoming administration junked a similar plan by former justice secretary Dominic Raab, with sources close to the new PM describing his bill of rights proposals as a “complete mess”.

Ms Truss reportedly told the Cabinet that she would look again at how to deliver the agenda of the so-called “British Bill of Rights”.

In her speech to Tory conference in Birmingham the prime minister confirmed that she was still committed the principle of the legislation.

"Our brilliant new Home Secretary will be bringing forward legislation to make sure that no European judge can overrule us,” Ms Truss told delegates on Wednesday.

Mr Raab’s bill, which was included in the 2019 Conservative manifesto, would have given legal supremacy to the UK supreme court and make it explicit that British courts could choose to disregard rulings from the European Court of Human Rights.

Britain was a founding member of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is overseen by the European Court of Human Rights. The institutions have no connection to the European Union and Britain remains a member.

All countries in Europe other than Belarus are members of the ECHR, although Russia ceased to be a party to the agreement earlier this year amid its invasion of Ukraine.

During her failed leadership campaign Ms Braverman, now Home Secretary, said she wanted the UK to leave the convention altogether.

Ms Truss meanwhile told MP that she was “prepared” to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights if reforms aimed at reducing the influence of judges in Strasbourg were not successful.