This issue absolutely is about that particular section of society who seem to be under attack in this case. Decisions have been made where those people should have been supported in the first place, and then they do not even have a comeback under the law, and that is just wrong.
What is more, the low success rate, which the Government are using to defend their plans, massively understates the number of Cart judicial reviews that secure a positive outcome for the claimant. Scrapping Cart judicial reviews goes against everything that a fair-minded liberal democracy stands for. We Liberal Democrats will never cease to stand up for such rights.
The Government state in their press release that
“it is expected that the legal text that removes the Cart judgment will serve as a framework that can be replicated in other legislation.”
In other words, they are admitting that the Bill is the thin end of the wedge and that it could open the door to more ouster clauses in the future, which would create whole areas of Government action that could not be judicially reviewed, making them immune from accountability through the courts.
Liberty has described the Bill as
“part of this Government’s bid to make itself…untouchable.”
The Law Society warns that the Bill
“should ring alarm bells for people who come up against the might of the state.”
There can be no justification for such a Bill in a democratic society. I urge colleagues across the House to vote against it.
4.50 pm