Former attorney general Dominic Grieve QC MP (pictured) is to chair a new all-party parliamentary group on the rule of law.

The group has been established to promote and understand the role of the rule of law in policy and legislative matters.

Grieve said he was ‘delighted’ with his new role. ‘It is a cross-party group that will offer a forum for discussion on the promotion and maintenance of the rule of law as well as being a facility to celebrate it and to examine areas of challenge and controversy that might arise.’

The Conservative MP for Beaconsfield, who has been an outspoken critic of the government’s plans to replace the Human Rights Act with a British bill of rights, has also emerged as a possible candidate to chair the House of Commons Justice Select Committee.

Another contender is the solicitor and former justice minister Jonathan Djanogly MP.