04/12/2012

MPs Defeat Human Rights Act Repeal Bid

A bid by a Tory MP to scrap the Human Rights Act has been defeated by MPs.

Richard Bacon said the European Court of Human Rights had used the act to influence British law, which was "fundamentally undemocratic".

But Labour's Thomas Docherty said Mr Bacon had misunderstood the legal impact of the act and praised it as one of Labour's most important reforms during government.

MPs voted against Mr Bacon's 10-minute rule bill by 195 to 72.

It will therefore make no further parliamentary progress.

Mr Bacon told MPs that unelected judges in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg had too much power.

A number of MPs are currently unhappy with a ruling by the ECHR, which says the UK's blanket ban on prisoner voting is a breach of human rights.

(H)


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