THE prime minister’s high-profile plan to introduce a “bill of rights and responsibilities” is in disarray following a cabinet revolt.

Ministers have warned Gor-don Brown that his proposed charter laying out the rights and duties of citizens is unworkable and could pave the way for a deluge of court cases.

Earlier this year Brown hailed the proposed bill as “of fundamental importance to our liberties and to our constitutional settlement” and said it “opens a new chapter in the British story of liberty”.

However, the plan, unveiled to the cabinet last week by the prime minister and Jack Straw, the justice secretary, has been labelled “pointless” and “provocative” by ministers, who fear they will be given a hostile reception by a public weary of the “human rights culture”.

The bill is at the heart of Brown’s attempt to position Labour as the party of strong national identity.

He has encouraged home-owners to fly the Union Jack in their gardens and established Veterans Day to pay tribute to the armed forces.

He had hoped that by matching new rights with “responsibilities”, the government could avoid accusations of giving people more rights with no duties in return.

Some ministers fear that any political gain from laying down new responsibilities for citizens would be outweighed by a public backlash over the new rights proposed.

The draft plan presented by Straw suggests a controversial “right to equality” and an array of socio-economic rights, such as a right to sufficient pay on which to live.

Straw, who is committed to producing a green paper on the bill before Christmas, told his cabinet colleagues that it was about “establishing fair rules” and “giving people a fair say”.

He said the charter would bring under one umbrella European human rights and social and economic entitlements linked to the welfare state.

The government’s legal advisers have warned of “massive difficulties”, questioning how social and economic rights could ever be “justiciable” - enforced by the courts - and whether a new right to equality was necessary given that the government is also producing an equalities bill.

Labour has already passed a Human Rights Act.

One senior Whitehall figure involved with the proposed charter said: “How will all this work? Are people going to use it to demand equality of pay with Jonathan Ross?”

At the cabinet meeting last week several ministers questioned the “point” of the scheme and whether there were “any votes in it”.

A cabinet source said: “The whole thing was panned. Nobody spoke up for it. It was total humiliation for Jack.”

Several ministers questioned whether it was appropriate to focus on such an abstract issue at a time when many voters are struggling to pay bills and fear they may lose their jobs. Brown closed the meeting by admitting the public hostility to the Human Rights Act and insisting that a solution be found.

Michael Wills, Straw’s deputy, will this week try to revive the scheme by holding one-to-one meetings with key cabinet critics. This month he begins a “roadshow” of Britain, holding focus groups to draft a “statement of British values” to be linked to the bill of rights.

A spokesman for Straw admitted that colleagues had “concerns”, but emphasised that the justice secretary still “hoped to get cabinet agreement”. He insisted the rights would help to bring people together at a time of economic uncertainty.

The Conservatives have labelled the scheme a “dog’s breakfast”. Nick Herbert, the shadow justice secretary, said: “No one has a clue how vague and unenforceable socio-economic rights will work, not to mention a meaningless statement of values, and on top of this we’ll get the EU’s charter of fundamental rights.”

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