Liz Truss halts Dominic Raab’s bill of rights plan | UK bill of rights

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Liz Truss has pulled plans to enact a new bill of rights in one of her first acts as prime minister, the Guardian understands, telling the cabinet her government would reassess ways to deliver its agenda.

The bill was the flagship policy of the outgoing justice secretary, Dominic Raab, who was dismissed by Truss on Tuesday after backing her rival Rishi Sunak.

Ministers are understood to be deeply concerned about the drafting of the bill, which was due to have its second reading on Monday.

The bill was introduced to parliament in June to replace the 1998 Human Rights Act, with a of controversial changes including an intent to entrench the primacy of British law over rulings from the European court of human rights. It would also place new restrictions on how human rights can be used in claims against the government.

There were also advanced plans for amendments to the bill by opposition MPs, including one on expanding abortion rights from the Labor MP Stella Creasy that would have necessitated a free vote on a conscience issue.

A Whitehall source said the bill was now “unlikely to progress in its current form” and said there was a widespread review on the most “effective means to deliver objectives through agenda”. Another said there were issues with the drafting, describing it as a “complete mess”.

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Robert Buckland, the Welsh secretary who was Raab’s predecessor at the Ministry of Justice, is among those who had grave misgivings about the bill. He told the Telegraph over the summer that proposals to “elevate certain parts of our existing statute law” to become risked politicising rights the courts.

Buckland expressed particular concern about Creasy’s plan to create a right to abortion, rather than its current status as “decriminalised”, and said it would risk importing US-style culture wars over the issue.

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