Dominic Raab has been accused of tinkering with human rights laws to distract Brits from the “avalanche of corruption” that has overwhelmed the Tory Government.
Steve Reed, Shadow Justice Secretary said the Deputy Prime Minister is making the UK less safe with these “politicised” changes to human rights law.
Mr Raab’s reforms to the human rights act appears to interlink with Home Secretary Priti Patel’s controversial Nationality and Borders Bill that passed through last week.
The Borders Bill allows officials to remove people’s British citizenship without warning, if it is not “reasonably practicable” to do so, or if its’ in the interests of national security.
Coupled with the changes to human rights, foreign offenders could be quietly deported without notice as they will not have the right to appeal.
The Ministry of Justice claims the reforms will stop foreign criminals exploiting the law in a bid to avoid deportation.
The department claimed 70% of successful human rights challenges are brought by foreign national offenders who cite a right to family life in the first instance when appealing deportation orders.
The latest figures published in 2013, claim only 32% of foreign offenders had a successful appeal on these grounds, less than half of Mr Raab’s estimate.
The Mirror understands the MoJ relies on Home Office statistics on foreign offenders making human rights challenges and the latest stats made available were published in 2013.
Yet Mr Raab, who is also Justice Secretary, insists the reforms to the act will “strengthen British rights like freedom of speech and trial by jury” and also add a “healthy dose of common sense” to the interpretation of legislation and rulings.
His plan to rewrite the Act is the latest attempt by Tory ministers to tackle the legislation, which enshrined the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic law.
President of the Law Society of England and Wales president, Stephanie Boyce said: “Foreign criminals already can be deported in the public interest even where there are arguments against this from the right to family life.
“Talk of restricting rights is dangerous and does not reflect the nuanced job the courts have to do.”
Labour ’s Mr Reed 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.
“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 are expected to oppose the Human Rights Act when brought to the Commons.
