Government will introduce measures to control immigration, will only bring forward proposals for Bill of Rights
Today's Queen's Speech briefly said that measures will be introduced by the Government to "control immigration", but gave no further details.
See here for our earlier article on the forthcoming Immigration Bill, as outlined in a speech by David Cameron. In particular, the Bill is set to tackle illegal working and extend "deport first, appeal later" to non-asylum appeals. JCWI says the latter "effectively means denying access to justice."
Image credit: UK GovernmentThe expected repeal of the Human Rights Act, however, was not included in today's Queen's Speech.
The speech only said: "My Government will bring forward proposals for a British Bill of Rights."
The Guardian reported that the Prime Minister was facing criticism from some of his backbenchers, many in the judiciary, as well as Labour, the SNP and Lib Dems over the Tory manifesto pledge to repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights.
The Daily Mail said the plan to repeal the Act has been kicked into the long grass, meaning any change in the law could be delayed for a year while the new Justice Secretary Michael Gove attempts to draw up the alternative Bill of Rights.
A Government source was quoted by the Mail as saying: "This is going to happen – we will deliver it – but we are not going to be rushed … This is going to be a large constitutional piece of legislation and it is important we get it right."
The Spectator says, however, that opponents of the proposal within the Conservative Party think it is unlikely to happen at any stage in this Parliament, unless the reforms are dramatically slimmed down to the point that it makes very little difference.
"To put it bluntly, the Prime Minister is at his most powerful at the moment, and he thinks that he can’t get it through now. That suggests he will never get it through," one unnamed Conservative was quoted as saying.
Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, said today: "It is heartening that a Conservative Government committed to scrapping the Human Rights Act has at least paused for thought in its first Queen’s Speech. There is a long struggle ahead but time is the friend of freedom. The more this new Parliament understands the value of the HRA for all of us in this United Kingdom and our reputation in the world, the more it is likely to understand how dangerous it would be to replace human rights with mere citizens' privileges."