Lord Ashdown says Liberal Democrats will fight tooth and nail to preserve Human Rights - Telegraph

Lord Ashdown, who was Lib Dem leader in the late 1990s and put pressure on the Blair government to introduce the act, takes a veiled swipe at Mr Cameron by raising the issue in terms of Britain's military support of the rebels who overthrew Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime Libya.

He adds: "How on earth can we go in to places like Libya and elsewhere talking about preservation of human rights and then throw away one of the primary bastions that provide every European citizen with the equivalent rights in whatever country you're in.

"I worked very hard to get the incorporation of the Bill of Rights brought into this country and I would be absolutely dead opposed to weakening it or getting rid of it."

The peer provocatively claims that he does not believe the Conservatives will ever take the issue "to the wall" because they could only get major changes to the law through parliament "on the basis of a coalition".

His comments come in spite of a review of some of the Act's provisions already being undertaken by the Home Office.

Officials there are examining Article 8 which gives people the right to a family life, but which critics say is being used by illegal immigrants to dodge deportation, after a campaign for a fresh look was launched by The Sunday Telegraph and supported by Jacqui Smith, the former Labour home secretary, and David Davis, her former Tory shadow.

The Home Office is one of four Whitehall departments where senior sources have told The Sunday Telegraph they are being hampered by human rights regulations.

The other three are the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS).

A source said: "You want to put proper policies into action but you are thwarted at almost every turn by the HRA.

"Some colleagues feel David Cameron's hand is being forced by Nick Clegg here, that he [Mr Clegg] is orchestrating the whole thing and it is very frustrating."

Lord Ashdown says: "Here's the bottom line and I'm sure the Conservatives are clever enough to recognise it.

"If you're going to get these things through the Commons and the Lords you have to get them through on the basis of a coalition. And I'm sure you know this is not an issue which people would want to take to the wall on that, on that front.

"I'm not going to speculate about what breaks and what doesn't break the coalition because I want this coalition to go on.

"I want it to be successful, I want it to last a full term and I want it to deliver the decent Government this country needs in a very very difficult time."

Last month Mr Clegg used a newspaper article to claim a "myth" had taken root "that human rights are a foreign invention, unwanted here, a charter for greedy lawyers and meddlesome bureaucrats."

He said the coalition should "never" abandon its commitment to human rights. Earlier this year the government announced the formation of a

commission to see whether the Human Rights Act should be replaced by a new British Bill of Rights – a Tory pledge when the party was in opposition – but critics fear the body is packed with supporters of the Act and that any changes it recommends will amount to little.

Mr Cameron said last month: "Though it won't be easy, though it will mean taking on parts of the establishment, I am determined we get a grip on the misrepresentation of human rights.

"We are looking at creating our own British Bill of Rights.

"We are going to fight in Europe for changes to the way the European Court works and we will fight to ensure people understand the real scope of these rights and do not use them as cover for rules or excuses that fly in the face of common sense."

via telegraph.co.uk