UK leader David Cameron pledges to seek veto over ruling by European court
Pre-election pledge by David Cameron to quit European court unless parliament gets final say
Britain will quit the European Court of Human Rights unless it gives the Westminster parliament final say over its rulings, according to pre-election plans detailed yesterday by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Cameron, who is seeking to counter the threat from the anti-European Union UK Independence Party in May's national election, has said rulings by the European rights court had prevented Britain deporting suspected militants.
He has also criticised the court for insisting on human rights on the battlefields of Afghanistan and upholding the rights of prisoners to vote.
Cameron says he wants to bring back powers to London from Europe before an in-out referendum on membership of the EU that the Conservatives have promised if they win re-election.
Under the proposal, if the Conservatives win a parliamentary majority in May 2015, Britain will pass a Bill of Rights that would set out the application of human rights law in Britain.
The proposed changes would mean the European court's rulings would no longer be binding over the Supreme Court and the Westminster parliament would have the right to veto the European court's judgments.
"I think the people of this country believe that first of all there should not be a legal blank cheque to take human rights into areas were they have never applied before," Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said yesterday.
Dominic Grieve, who served as UK attorney general under Cameron until earlier this year, said the government's case made "a number of howlers which are simply factually inaccurate" such as an assertion that the ECHR had prevented Britain from upholding whole-life prison terms.
