LONDON: Strains in Britain’s two-party coalition surfaced yesterday as David Cameron’s governing partner likened the prime minister’s policies to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other “tyrants”.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, leader of the junior coalition partner the Liberal Democrats, made the comparison when criticising plans by Cameron’s Conservatives to limit the power of the European Convention on Human Rights in Britain if re-elected next year.
Both parties trail the opposition Labour Party in the polls ahead of a national vote in May 2015 and are increasingly trying to distance themselves from each other in an attempt to make sure voters understand they stand for different things after four years in government together.
Clegg said he had been “blindsided” by comments from Justice Secretary Chris Grayling that the Conservatives would lay out plans to “curtail” the role of the convention in Britain and to replace the legislation which enshrines it into British law.
“The Conservatives, extraordinarily enough, want to line up with Vladimir Putin and other sort of tyrants around the world by tearing up our long tradition of human rights,” Clegg told Britain’s LBC radio station yesterday.
Some Conservatives want Britain to leave the convention altogether, arguing that it makes it too difficult for the country to deport foreign criminals.
Cameron on Tuesday dismissed Dominic Grieve, the government’s top lawyer and someone who had cautioned against withdrawing from the convention, in a big government shake-up, a move seen as paving the way for a potential exit. Clegg said the changes to Cameron’s team had been about removing people with “reasonable internationalism”. REUTERS
