Steve Reed responds to Government plans to overhaul human rights laws

Steve Reed MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, responding to the Ministry of Justice's consultation on proposals to overhaul human rights laws, said:

“Our criminal justice system is in crisis with record backlogs in the Crown courts, huge delays in prosecuting criminals, and shamefully low conviction rates for rape and sexual offences. But Dominic Raab is ignoring all that so he can tinker with human rights laws as a distraction from the avalanche of corruption that has overwhelmed this out-of-touch Conservative Government.

“Ministers should be focussing on sorting out the failures in our courts, prisons, and probation services that are stoking, rather than stopping, crime. Senior figures from GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 have already warned that the Government's politicised changes to human rights law could make the UK less safe by making it more difficult to fight terrorism. 

"Labour will oppose the Human Rights Act being ripped to shreds by a Conservative Government planning to endanger the public by changing the rules to protect themselves."

Ends


Notes to editors

• The security services have warned ministers that plans to overhaul human rights laws could make it more difficult to fight terrorism at home and abroad.
  
  'Meddling with human rights law makes UK less secure, spies warn' - 13 December, The Times