Britain should have Bill of Rights, says human rights panel Sir Leigh Lewis, the chairman of the commission, was one of the seven legal experts backing a British Bill of Rights. He said it would help people feel like human rights are "owned by this country, by the people of this country, by the parliament of this country." He said a British Bill could go even further than the European Convention on Human Rights, which has protected a set of fundamental freedoms across the continent since 1953. "If there were a UK Bill of Rights we should not be against the idea it might contain rights beyond those in the Convention," Sir Leigh said. It's well over half-a-century since the Convention was drafted. The world has moved on in unimaginable ways. Sir Leigh said rights which would be "most readily considered" would tackle fundamental rights such as the inclusion of a right to equality. However, Baroness Helena Kennedy and Professor Phillipe Sands raised fears that some people would use a British Bill as an excuse to "decouple the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights." "This is not a risk we are willing to take," they said. Prof Sands told the BBC's World at One that the panel had only found "clear and overwhelming support for the Human Rights Act" and little appetite among the country for withdrawal. Labour agreed with the two dissenting panel members that there is no need for a British Bill. Sadiq Khan, the shadow justice secretary, called the commission a "classic political fudge, designed to paper over the cracks within the Tory-led Government." "Today's report is a dog's breakfast as a result," he said. The Human Rights Act is our Bill of Rights, and already provides legal protection against torture and slavery, and enshrines in law the right to liberty, to open and fair justice and to protest. It upholds freedom of speech, the right to a private life and to religious freedoms.