BORIS Johnson’s Government is planning to ditch human rights laws as part of its withdrawal plan from the European Union.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, ministers are considering opt-outs from the Human Rights Act in areas where judges have supposedly “overreached”.

The changes under consideration could prevent asylum seekers from using the rules to halt deportations and curb punishments against British Army soldiers operating overseas. To do so, Tory ministers would either amend the Human Rights Act, or disapply its provisions from new legislation. 

EU leaders had insisted that the UK must remain committed to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), with the Human Rights Act intact, as part of any Brexit deal.

The Tory manifesto pledged to "update" the Act after Brexit and the Sunday Telegraph reports that a formal review is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who is under pressure to explain how Government plans to override elements of the Brexit deal are consistent with obligations under international law, will face questioning from the media today.

His Labour shadow, Lord Falconer, said: "A future where (the) UK breaks its international law obligations, and opts out of Human Rights protections is a very bad future."

Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf branded the UK Government a “parcel of rogues”.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry added: “Tory threats to opt out of the UK’s ECHR obligations aren’t new and their refusal to guarantee domestic enforceability of #humanrights is a sticking point in the EU negotiations. So we shouldn’t be surprised by this despite their protestations to the contrary.”

However, the UK Justice Secretary batted down suggestions the Tories want to leave the ECHR.

He told Times Radio: "The [Human Rights] Act is now 20 years of age, I think it needs to be looked at carefully, we're working on ways on which we can examine that and do it in a mature and sensible way.

"But … the idea that we're going to leave the convention is for the birds. You know, it was British Conservative lawyers who wrote the damn thing back in 1950. We wrote it because we were leaders of Europe when it came to freedom, we wanted to underline the importance of fundamental rights and freedoms back then and that frankly for me is hugely important.

"It is a badge of honour for this country that we did that. Yes there have been moments when we have had disagreements and clashes about aspects of its interpretation, but you know there is a wide margin of appreciation that allows member states, Britain, France, other countries, to make their own laws which give us a huge amount of freedom.

"And I do think that rather than focusing on the European Convention we should be focusing on our own domestic laws and working out where perhaps we've gold-plated laws a bit too much in what is often an English Law tradition, rather than criticising the convention itself.

"Let's see what we can do at home to streamline our laws and make them more responsive rather than suggesting that we should withdraw from the convention. That would be wholly wrong in my opinion."