THE Conservatives faced further embarrassment on a key policy pledge after the Shadow Attorney-General went off-message to give his support to the Human Rights Act.

Dominic Grieve opened up further divisions by backing the Act, which has been criticised by both the Conservative leader and the Shadow Home Secretary. His support for the Act will be an embarrassment for Michael Howard, who has promised to overhaul or scrap it if the party wins the election.

Mr Grieve’s comments have emerged just days after Mr Howard dismissed Howard Flight, a former party vice-chairman and the MP for Arundel & South Downs, for his remarks about spending cuts.

The Shadow Attorney-General made his comments at a meeting for lawyers at Stationer’s Hall in the City of London. He was on a platform that included Lord Falconer of Thoroton, QC, the Lord Chancellor, and David Heath, a Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman. Mr Grieve, a member of the Tories’ home affairs team, told the meeting: “The Human Rights Act has many benefits which it has conferred. The Human Rights Act is a dynamic . . . I have some confidence in its future.”

Later, answering a question about the compensation culture, Mr Grieve, the MP for Beaconsfield, said: “I don’t think the Human Rights Act has anything to do with fuelling a compensation culture at all.”

His confidence and faith in the future of the Act is at odds with the view of Mr Howard and of his immediate boss, David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary.

“The Conservative Party is reviewing Mr Blair’s Human Rights Act and, if it can’t be improved, it will be scrapped,” Mr Howard said. Mr Davis said that the Act was “seriously malfunctioning” and had encouraged a “compensation culture”.

The Conservatives have promised that, if they win the general election, they will set up a commission to “reform, replace or repeal” the legislation as a matter of urgency.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Donor organ allowed child’s own heart to heal
• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating