Ex-judge's warning over human rights convention

A FORMER senior judge has warned of a conflict between the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Prime Minister David Cameron's proposed British bill of rights.

Ex-lord chief justice Lord Woolf said he feared judges would be placed in a difficult position trying to balance opposing rights - and that it might force the UK to ditch the ECHR.

His comments follow public outcry over the European Court of Human Rights' ruling that serving UK prisoners should be allowed to vote, a decision MPs voted to ignore earlier this month.

Lord Woolf, who was lord chief justice from 2000 to 2005, said he was "relieved" at Justice Secretary Ken Clarke's pledge on Sunday that there was "no chance" of Britain pulling out of the ECHR.

Mr Clarke said he would seek to kick-start reform of the ECHR to rebalance its relations with national courts when the UK takes over as chair of the Council of Europe in November.

Lord Woolf said: "We have got a stark option: either we accept the European Convention, or we don't accept it and decide to leave the Council of Europe.

"It's very difficult to do what Mr Clarke indicated he would like to do when he's chairman of the relative body, because there are 47 signatories … to the European Convention as well as ourselves. To try and amend that is a virtually impossible task."