LABOUR is failing to uphold basic rights, the new head of the official equalities watchdog has warned.

Protesters, migrant workers and disabled people have been particularly targeted by the government, Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) chairwoman Mary-Ann Stephenson has told ministers.

Dr Stephenson, who took up her role at the start of the month, urged the government to “ensure rights are protected across the nation.”

Her warning comes as PM Sir Keir Starmer is looking to persuade other European leaders to dilute the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to block refugees.

Dr Stephenson highlighted areas where “key human rights” are not being guaranteed.

She said: “The government has made commitments to protect everyone’s fundamental human rights.

“While there has been progress in some areas, it is failing to uphold basic rights in others — particularly by permitting heavy-handed responses to peaceful protests, failing to ensure disabled people can access healthcare on a level playing field with others, and allowing labour exploitation to go unchecked for certain workers.

“This failure to uphold key human rights is concerning for each and every one of us. 

“That’s why we’ve written to ministers to urge them to review our new report and ensure rights are protected across the nation.”

The warning echoes complaints made by her predecessor, Kishwer Falkner, about “heavy-handed policing” of Gaza solidarity demonstrations which she said risked a “chilling effect” on protest rights.

In an EHRC report marking Human Rights Day today those concerns were raised again.

“Despite these limits going against international standards, the government has not yet repealed laws — such as the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act and the Public Order Act 2023 — which may disproportionately restrict people’s rights to association, peaceful protest and assembly,” it said.

In fact, the government has been going in the opposite direction, handing police ever-greater powers to curb protests and arresting hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrators.

The EHRC also said there are “substantial gaps in improving disabled people’s access to health services” and there had been “persistent failings by the government to protect migrant workers from abuse and exploitation, despite access to safe and fair working conditions being a basic human right.”

However, Sir Keir has signalled a further clampdown, calling for a new interpretation of the human rights convention to curb migration.

Writing in the Guardian with Danish premier Mette Frederiksen, they argued that “listening to legitimate concerns and acting on them is what our politics is about. 

“We are determined to show that our societies can act with compassion while upholding law and order, and fairness.

“So as responsible, progressive governments we will deliver the change that people are crying out for. 

“We will control our borders to protect our democracies — and make our nations stronger than ever in the years to come,” they said.

And Sir Keir dispatched Justice Secretary David Lammy to a Council of Europe summit in Strasbourg to build a coalition of European governments for a more draconian approach.

Mr Lammy said that human rights rules cannot be “frozen in time,” and focused on tightening definitions of the right to family life and “inhuman and degrading treatment” to make it easier to deport migrants. 

“The interpretation of the convention must not stop states effectively tackling our shared migration and criminal justice challenges,” he said.

The government was urged to change course by 21 celebrities, including actors Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley and Michael Palin and instead “take a principled stand for torture victims.”

And Steve Valdez-Symonds of Amnesty International UK said: “There is a dreadful irony in our Justice Secretary working with his counterparts to remove or reduce rights on the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“It shows how far we have drifted from the moral resolve of the last century.”