The new prime minister has suspended the passage of the proposed Bill of Rights through parliament. It would undergo its first Commons test on September 12.
The controversial legislation would have replaced the Human Rights Act first enacted by the Tony Blair administration and reaffirmed the Supreme Court’s authority as the ultimate decision-maker on human rights issues.
Currently, Britain is forced to follow the jurisprudence of rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg.
A government source said the Bill of Rights “is unlikely to make any progress in its current form,” with the new administration “reviewing the most effective means of achieving the goals of the Bill as a whole.”
More generally, the “principles and objectives are not suspended,” the source said.
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Confirming that the legislation will not be submitted to MPs next week, the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said this afternoon: “The new Secretaries of State will consider all policies in their area, including pending bills being considered by Parliament. This is not different.
“I will rightly let the new Secretary of State think about that and then we will draw up various policy agendas.”
The proposed Bill of Rights was published in June after the ECtHR blocked the deportation of illegal migrants to Rwanda.
Britain has signed a deal with the African nation to process asylum seekers who arrive illegally in the UK.
However, the inaugural flight never took off after a preliminary injunction was imposed by the ECtHR.
Their intervention came despite the Supreme Court having already ruled that the policy was legal.
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The Bill of Rights was championed by former Attorney General Dominic Raab.
The Esher and Walton MP was dismissed from office yesterday by Mrs Truss after he launched a series of explosive attacks on the new Conservative leader during the contest to replace Boris Johnson.
Rishi Sunak’s lender described the victor in the race as producing an “electoral suicide note” with her economic plans.
Mr Raab has been replaced by the former Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis.
During the campaign, Ms. Truss repeatedly pledged to strengthen the Bill of Rights to provide a “sound legal basis” to tackle illegal migration.
“We need to ensure that the UK Bill of Rights fully complies with the obligation to give the UK Government the powers and the UK Parliament the sovereignty to fully implement the policy,” she said.
Laura Trevelyan, Amnesty International UK’s human rights campaign manager in the UK, said she hoped Ms Truss would rule out applying the Bill of Rights in full.
She said: “The prospect of the Human Rights Act being watered down or even completely torn apart has been really disturbing to anyone who cares about rights and justice.
“We sincerely hope that Liz Truss sends any suggestion to repeal the Human Rights Act to the bonfire of history and that this administration puts a renewed focus on protecting and celebrating human rights both here and around the world.”