Government must be 'MILITANT' about advancing human rights and should 'NOT apologise' for it, says Attorney General

Speaking at a meeting of the Society of Labour Lawyers in Liverpool, Lord Hermer said that ministers and party supporters should not apologise for human rights legislation introduced by Sir Tory Blair during the last Labour government.

Lord Hermer, a former colleague of Sir Keir Starmer when the Prime Minister was a barrister, headed Matrix Chambers and was appointed a deputy high court judge in 2019.

He told a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference: "We do not want a society that is simply ruled by laws.

"We want a society in which respect for human dignity is a guiding principle, and the human rights framework that the last Labour government introduced is one that we should not apologise for, or seek to make excuses for. It is one that we must own."

Lord Hermer raised concerns that the rise in populist politics could destroy human rights. He said: "We effectively have to popularise the rule of law and human rights, and it’s an absolutely key defence [against] populism."

"I think we need to be militant about our belief in the rule of law and human rights. We should be shouting it from the rooftops. We should be explaining it in language that everybody understands. And I think we have a fantastic story to tell."

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Rishi Sunak tried to water down human rights defences for migrants threatened with removal in his Rwanda legislation.

Meanwhile, Labour's Human Rights Act brought in by Sir Tony Blair has been a target for other Tory ministers who said it impacted their efforts to tackle illegal migration.

It comes as Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood warned that there may be more emergency measures taken by the government to ease prison overcrowding.

An early release scheme has already started, under which thousands of prisoners will be freed 40 per cent of the way through their jail sentences rather than 50 per cent, to avoid running out of jail cells.

The measures are designed to free up approximately 5,500 spaces. Mahmood warned: "There will be more tough challenges in sorting out prison capacity as we go forward."

Speaking at the Reform UK conference last weekend, former Tory minister Anne Widdecombe, touched on the pressures on prisons and referred to her time as prisons minister in the 1990s, when she said she even proposed to "take over a disused holiday camp."

She said: "Now all you have to do because the accommodation’s already there, you put up a secure perimeter and lo, you’ve got a low security prison.

"Of course you do take away the cinema and the swimming pool before you do that."