Scottish Labour deputy leader Kezia Dugdale has said her party would stand with the SNP to try and stop the new UK Government repealing the human rights act.
She told MSPs at Holyrood yesterday that Labour would do “everything that we can” to stop Prime Minister David Cameron replacing the legislation with a new British Bill of Rights.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell said the move would re-balance the distinction between rights and responsibilities.
The Conservatives want to give UK courts and parliament the “final say” on human rights issues rather than Strasbourg.
Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair was in office when the Human Rights Act came into force in 2000, bringing the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.
Ms Dugdale said: “These benches will do everything that we can to oppose any attempt that the Tories make to scrap the Human Rights Act.
“Enacted in the early days of a fresh Labour government full of hope and aspiration for the future, the act embodies the civil and political rights which are fundamental to any liberal democracy.”
Ms Dugdale claimed there was “fear and trepidation in the air” in Scottish communities over Tory plans to “attack disability benefits”.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Opposition to the repeal of the Human Rights Act is one example of, I hope, many examples where Labour and the SNP in that progressive alliance that I have talked about can work together against the wrong-headed measures being put forward by the Conservative government.”