Letter from Parliament - Simon Danczuk MP

Simon Danczuk MP

Of all the things we take for granted living in a country like the UK, our human rights are perhaps the most important.

These rights are set out in the Human Rights Act introduced in 1998 and are enforced across Europe through the European Convention on Human Rights that was designed by Winston Churchill.

These rights include our right to a family life and to privacy as well as our rights at work. These rights are now at risk under the new Conservative plans to scrap the Human Rights Act and to withdraw from the European Convention.

Part of the problem is that the Government don’t even seem to know what their own plans are. They have put Michael Gove in charge, a recipe for disaster if ever there was one. When asked in the House of Commons he refused three times to say if they wanted to pull us out of the European Convention or not.

This is not good enough and our human rights are too important to play politics with in this way.

We also have to understand that it is more than just our own rights that are at stake. If the UK becomes the only country in Europe, apart from Belarus, that is outside the Convention then it weakens our authority when defending human rights abroad. Putin is already flouting the rules and we don’t want to hand him another excuse.

My positon is clear. I want the UK to be a strong force for promoting human rights at home and across the world, that means keeping the Human Rights Act and protecting Churchill’s legacy in Europe.