UK human rights commission fatally split

The British Bill of Rights Commission seems unlikely to agree final proposals as leaked emails and papers published in the Daily Telegraph reveal splits between the Commission members. Sir Leigh Lewis, who chairs the Commission, wrote to members saying that at the time of publishing report members were “likely to be far apart on a number of key issues”. “The Commission could publish as many as three different reports from the chairman Sir Leigh Lewis and its different factions, allowing the Government to claim that it is split and so ignore its findings”, said the leaked papers. Last year, The British Prime Minister David Cameron called for the abolition of the Human Rights Act, which integrates the European Convention on Human Rights into British law, after the unprecedented unrest in August afflicted the country. The coalition formed a commission of human rights experts who were expected to report to the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Justice Secretary Ken Clarke the possibility of introducing a British Bill of Rights to replace the Act, which was passed by the Labour Party in 1998. But Nick Clegg pledged during the Liberal Democrat party conference last September that Liberal Democrats will not allow any major changes in the Act. The lack of agreement between the Commission members will make it difficult for the UK premier to persuade his Liberal Democrats to agree to a new British Bill of Rights. Remarking that the Commission set up to look at the idea of a British Bill of Rights was "not really up to the job", Douglas Carswell MP said, "If we want change, and I want change, we need to get ourselves a new justice secretary."