THE leader of the Liberal Democrats Jeremy Hilton (Kingsholm and Wotton) has written to all six MPs in Gloucestershire asking for their assurance that they will not vote in favour of scrapping the Human Rights Act.

At a full county council meeting earlier this month, the Liberal Democrat Group on Gloucestershire County Council urged fellow councillors across political parties to continue supporting the Humans Rights Act.

It had also been proposed that the leader of the council should write to both the Prime Minister and the six Gloucestershire MPs calling for the Act not to be repealed.

The motion was however defeated by both Conservative and UKIP Councillors voting together to scrap the Act.

Cllr. Jeremy Hilton said: “I have now taken it upon myself to contact the six Gloucestershire MPs. It is disappointing that the Tories in the county with the help of their UKIP colleagues don’t care two hoots about safeguarding civil liberties, protecting our human rights and remaining part of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

“There are senior Conservatives who oppose such plans to repeal the Human Rights Act. I do hope that the responses I receive from the letters I have sent to our county MPs in Stroud, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, the Cotswolds, the Forest of Dean and Cheltenham will be favourable in keeping this important piece of legislation and for Britain to remain a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). I do think it is very much in the public interest for residents of the county to know exactly whether their MP is either for or against the abolition of the Human Rights Act.”