Conservatives pledge powers to ignore European court of human rights rulings

Chris Grayling, the United Kingdom Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice launched on the 3 October 2014 a UK Conservative Party plan for reform of human rights law.

My Grayling said that a new Conservative Government if elected in 2015 could take the United Kingdom out of the European Court of Human Rights unless it secured Council of Europe agreement that the UK Parliament had the final say over its rulings.

The Convention is the centrepiece of the 47-member Council of Europe, Europe's main watchdog for human rights and democracy, which was set up in the aftermath of World War II, with substantial UK input.

Nick Clegg, the leader of Britain's Liberal Democrats, said on 5 October 2014 that they would refuse to form another coalition with Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party if it insisted on pulling the country out of the European Court of Human Rights.

• Primary Source

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Conservative Home, 03.10.14: Chris Grayling MP: Our plan to protect human rights – while making the European Court advisory only http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2014/10/chris-grayling-mp-our-plan-to-protect-human-rights-while-making-the-european-court-advisory-only.html

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The Telegraph, 03.10.14: Tory plan to leave ECHR contains 'howlers' and is 'factually inaccurate', says party's ex-Attorney General http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11137442/Tory-plan-to-leave-ECHR-contains-howlers-and-is-factually-inaccurate-says-partys-ex-Attorney-General.html

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EUObserver, 06.10.14: UK faces 'nuclear option' if it scraps European rights charter http://euobserver.com/justice/125910

openDemocracy: OurKingdom, 03.11.14: Human rights — at the government’s discretion https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/frances-webber/human-rights-%E2%80%94-at-government%E2%80%99s-discretion

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