Members of Parliament Question the Justice Secretary

When asked by Munira Wilson, Liberal Democrat MP whether he still plans to replace the HRA with a Bill of Rights, Raab responded with a formulaic answer which we have heard before: ‘The Government were elected with a manifesto to reform human rights. We have published the Bill of Rights, and we will bring it forward for Second Reading as soon as parliamentary time allows.’ Wilson pushed further, suggesting that the truth of the matter was that the Prime Minister had shelved the Bill yet again, a point to which Raab did not directly respond.  

Joanna Cherry KC MP, Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR), also posed a question, though not on the Bill specifically. She pointed out that ‘human rights are universal’ and that in the JCHR’s 11th report entitled “Black People, Racism and Human Rights” which was published more than two years ago, the Committee stated that it expects ‘the Government to fulfil its promises to implement the recommendations from the Wendy Williams’ Lessons Learned Review as a matter of urgency.’ She then asked whether we can ‘take it that the delay in implementing the recommendations and reports that some of them are now to be ditched are indicative of the fact that the Government are unconcerned whether their forthcoming immigration legislation is human rights compliant?’ Sarah Dines MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department, replied that ‘it is absolutely not the case that the Government haven’t treated this issue with urgency, when you deal with serious issues you have to have a detailed, reliable response. You can’t just rush ahead with something that won’t work. This Government is committed to doing everything that is right’. You can read about how the Justice Secretary’s Bill will disproportionately impact Black and minority ethnic communities here in our blog by Runnymede Trust.