ASHTEAD MP Chris Grayling has invited Labour to join forces with the Conservatives to end the human rights "madness" keeping extremist Muslim cleric Abu Qatada in Britain.
The Tory Justice Secretary has said the system has gone "badly wrong" when the UK cannot deport a man "who so obviously despises what we stand for", and said Conservative attempts to change human rights laws have been thwarted by their Liberal Democrat Coalition partners.
The justice secretary said the Conservatives would change human rights laws immediately in order to deport Qatada, but they cannot secure enough votes in Parliament, and has appealed to Ed Miliband to support "support radical reform of our human rights laws".
The Liberal Democrats have vowed to fight even modest changes to the law.
Mr Grayling wrote in a national newspaper: "We have given up far too much of our own sovereignty.
"We have given up too many of our own democratic rights. We need to reverse the changes."
Many Labour MPs view the Human Rights Act – passed by Tony Blair in 1998 – as an article of faith which cannot be touched, but Mr Grayling wants to legislate for a "dramatically curtailed role for the European Court of Human Rights in the UK".
Last week, the Appeal Court ruled that Qatada could not be deported to Jordan on terror charges in case his right to a fair trial was breached.
Although the judges accepted Qatada was "very dangerous", they said this was "not a relevant consideration" under human rights laws.
