The committee wrote to Lord Chancellor David Gauke in December regarding the rights of citizens post-Brexit. The committee sought an explanation for the dilution of the government’s commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Last week the committee received what it described as a “troubling response”. While again pledging an unchanging commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms, the letter from Edward Argar MP, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Justice, ended with reference to the government’s intention to revisit the Human Rights Act once the process of leaving the EU is concluded.

Committee chair Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws said: “We have repeatedly asked the government for assurances regarding citizens’ rights post-Brexit, deal or no deal.

“Again and again we are told that the government is committed to the European Convention on Human Rights, but without a concrete commitment, and with messaging that is changing and becoming diluted.

“Is the government sincere in its commitment to the ECHR? If so, why has it failed to give assurances that it will not repeal or reform the Human Rights Act, which in essence incorporates the rights set out in the ECHR into domestic British law?”