The shadow justice secretary has dismissed claims by the Council of Europe that Tory plans to scrap the Human Rights Act (HRA) could exclude the UK from the EU.

Council of Europe secretary general Terry Davis, a former Labour MP, said last month that he had warned the Tories that repealing the HRA could ultimately disqualify the UK from membership of the council and the EU (see [2009] Gazette, 28 May, 2).

However, shadow justice ­secretary Dominic Grieve ­dismissed this claim as ‘wrong’, accusing Davis of putting ­politics before ‘reasoned legal judgment’.

Grieve maintained that his party would replace the HRA with a Bill of Rights to strengthen the protection of core liberties, while ‘mitigating the impact of excessive judicial legislation’.

The Bill of Rights, Grieve said, would be compatible with the ECHR. ‘Mr Davis suggests this is impossible – and therefore that the UK would be forced to leave the EU.

‘Fifty years of British practice prior to the HRA, and the example of many other European countries, demonstrate he is wrong,’ he added.