However, the Council of Europe yesterday said that Mr Grayling’s proposals are
“not consistent” with the ECHR.

It added that it was “inconceivable that the UK as a human rights leader and
founding country of this organisation would leave”.

The comments came after two former Conservative Cabinet ministers reacted
angrily to Mr Grayling’s plans to overhaul the way European human rights
laws are treated in the UK.

Ken Clarke, the former justice secretary, said that he found the plan
“bewildering”.

He told the BBC’s World at One programme: “I have often, even as a minister,
lost judicial review cases where I was rather annoyed by the judgment of the
court, but I have never proposed to sweep away the whole jurisdiction on
that basis.”

Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general who was sacked in the last
reshuffle, said Mr Grayling’s measures are “almost puerile”.

“They are unworkable and will damage the UK’s international reputation,” Mr
Grieve said.

He added: “In many cases, there’s a misunderstanding of what the court does.
Even the paper which has just been produced by my colleague, Chris Grayling,
includes in it a number of howlers which are simply factually inaccurate.”

David Cameron used his speech at the Conservative Party conference to announce
that he would scrap Labour’s Human Rights Act and replace it with a British
Bill of Rights.

A draft Bill will be published before Christmas, which has prompted fury from
the Liberal Democrats, who are supportive of the ECHR.

Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Business Secretary, said: “It’s a very retrograde
step.

“We would see a gradual decline in the credibility of our legal system
because, essentially, in order to score cheap populist points, the legal
system is being undermined and judges are being undermined.”

The European Commission also dismissed the question of the UK leaving the ECHR
as “speculative”.

“Let us not forget that this is a proposal from a party. There is no proposal
for legislation,” a spokesman said.

“There are specific provisions on human rights in the treaty that apply to all
member states. All member states are obliged to respect these principles.”

Mr Grayling yesterday said that “the British public are desperate for change”.

“They believe it is wrong that decisions that should be about things that take
place in this country and decisions about whether you can occupy a piece of
greenbelt land and then claim your family rights to stay there when the rest
of our society would not be allowed to occupy and build on that bit of
greenbelt land.

“That shouldn’t be allowed to happen in our law and it should be matter for
our parliament to decide and not for an international court to decide.”