The bill was the flagship policy of outgoing justice secretary Dominic Raab, who was sacked by Truss on Tuesday after he backed her rival Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership election. The bill’s sudden disappearance will raise questions about how the government intends to proceed with Rwanda’s deportation policy, which has been stalled since the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued last-minute injunctions to prevent applicants from being sent asylum. The bill – which was in the Conservative manifesto – would have given legal supremacy to the UK’s highest court and allowed courts to ignore ECtHR rulings. However, ministers appear to be deeply concerned about the overall drafting of the bill, which was due to go to a second reading on Monday. There were also advanced plans for amendments to the bill by opposition MPs, including one to extend abortion rights by Labor MP Stella Creasy that would require a free vote on a matter of conscience. The legislation was introduced into parliament in June to replace the Human Rights Act 1998, with a number of changes, including the intention to establish the supremacy of British law over ECHR rulings. It will also put new restrictions on how human rights can be used in claims against the government. Raab had pledged to legislate greater press freedom and freedom of expression. A Whitehall source said the bill was now “unlikely to go ahead in its current form” and there had been a wide-ranging review of the most “effective means of achieving targets through the legislative agenda”. Another said there were problems with the pension, describing it as a “complete mess”. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Robert Buckland, the Welsh secretary who was Raab’s predecessor at the Ministry of Justice, is among those who had reservations about the bill. He told the Telegraph in the summer that proposals to “elevate certain parts of our existing law” to become rights risked politicizing the courts. Buckland expressed particular concern over Creasy’s plan to create a right to abortion, rather than its current “decriminalized” status, and said it would risk ushering in US-style culture wars on the issue. Buckland’s decisions to switch his support from Sunak to Truss – a key coup for her campaign – were partly based on debates surrounding the reform bill. It is unclear whether any version of the bill will move forward, and Truss could decide to find new routes to achieve the same goals. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “A new Secretary of State will look at all the policies in his area, which will include ongoing bills going through parliament. This is no different.” Ministers will have to devise a new legal route to enforce the Rwanda policy – which the Trust has said it is committed to. Her new home secretary, Suella Braverman, a previous Tory leadership candidate, pledged during her campaign to take Britain out of the ECHR. Jonathan Jones QC, the former head of the government’s legal department, said it was the right decision. “Bill is a mess, would make rights harder to enforce in UK courts and (ironically) likely lead to more cases in Strasbourg,” he tweeted.
