London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 03, 2025

Labour fears Dominic Raab will target rights act in new justice post

Labour fears Dominic Raab will target rights act in new justice post

Justice secretary called this year for government to be more ambitious as it seeks to reform act

Labour and senior legal figures have raised concerns that Dominic Raab was appointed as justice secretary in order to enact wholesale changes to the Human Rights Act.

Labour has unearthed footage of the former foreign secretary saying he did not support the act, which he will now be expected to enforce or overhaul. In messages sent to ministers earlier this year, Raab urged the government to be more ambitious as it sought to reform human rights law and judicial reviews.

The government launched the independent Human Rights Act review, expected to report later this year, which is reconsidering the duty on UK courts to “take into account” judgments from the European court of human rights, and their ability to declare British laws “incompatible” with human rights.

Footage of Raab uncovered by the office of the shadow justice secretary, David Lammy, from 2009 shows Raab, then a backbench MP, looking into the camera and saying: “I don’t support the Human Rights Act and I don’t believe in economic and social rights.”


In a book entitled The Assault on Liberty: What Went Wrong with Rights, authored by Raab in the same year, he argued that the Human Rights Act – introduced by Labour in 1998 – had led to a slew of new claims in the courts.

“The spread of rights has become contagious and, since the Human Rights Act, opened the door to vast new categories of claims, which can be judicially enforced against the government through the courts,” he wrote.

The act had allowed UK law to be trumped by the European courts, Raab claimed, while the boundaries between parliament, the judiciary and the executive had been blurred.

“The very enactment of the Human Rights Act has served as a trigger for the formulation of claims by lawyers and judicial reasoning by courts, using human rights arguments that would never have been dared before,” he said.

On Wednesday, Raab was removed as foreign secretary and accepted the roles of justice secretary, deputy prime minister and lord chancellor, and he is now also responsible for the independence of the judiciary. The previous justice secretary, Robert Buckland, has returned to the backbenches.

Informed sources said Raab commented earlier this year on the government’s proposals for possible changes to the Human Rights Act and judicial review. After receiving a “write-round” – a note sent out to cabinet ministers about proposed policy – from Buckland’s office, Raab suggested that ministers could be “more ambitious”, a source said.

The legal blogger David Allen Green said Raab was not a popular choice for the position among lawyers because of his fixation with the act. “One would not be surprised that one stipulation made by Raab in accepting the position as lord chancellor is that he get another crack at repealing the Human Rights Act,” he said.

There has been concern about the high turnover in the role of lord chancellor over what has been a turbulent period for the justice system, with huge spending cuts. Derek Sweeting QC, the chair of the Bar Council, said: “As we welcome the eighth justice secretary in the last 10 years to play this vital role, the need for a consistent and strong voice in government for our justice system could not be greater.”

Sir Bob Neill, the Conservative chair of the justice select committee, said he would work with Raab but lamented the way Buckland had been sacked by Boris Johnson to “make way”.

“The position of lord chancellor is crucial. It is not some sort of sweetie to be handed out by the PM,” he said.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The new secretary of state will carefully consider the independent review’s findings when the panel reports back later this year.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×