Holyrood firmly rejects Westminster’s proposed withdrawal from ECHR

Equalities minister Angela Constance said replacing the ECHR would risk “ripping up” a shared idea of Britishness.

Ms Constance told MSPs: “We should be in no doubt in this chamber, in this Parliament and across Scotland as a whole that dragging Scotland out of the EU and attempts to undermine fundamental human rights safeguards will indeed have profound implications for our country.

“It would seem to me that the UK government in its endeavours to repeal the Human Rights Act and, reprehensibly, to even talk, to moot the suggestion, of withdrawing from the European Convention, it appears to me it is tearing up any notion, any shared heritage we have as political nations and, indeed, is ripping up any shared notion that we have of what being British actually means.”

Theresa May, then Home Secretary, said last year: “The ECHR can bind the hands of parliament, adds nothing to our prosperity, makes us less secure by preventing the deportation of dangerous foreign nationals, and does nothing to change the attitudes of governments like Russia’s when it comes to human rights.”

Labour deputy leader Alex Rowley said: “Labour is committed to standing up for people’s rights.

“The current UK Human Rights Act, which incorporates ECHR into British law, has protected victims of domestic violence and has allowed victims of rape to ensure that the police properly investigate those offences.

“It has been used by disabled people affected by welfare reform, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people have used it to overcome discrimination.”

The Conservatives’ Douglas Ross MSP meanwhile said the SNP were being “alarmist”.