MPs issued a staunch defence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) yesterday after its reputation was repeatedly maligned by the Tory leadership.

The ECHR - which is often mistakenly conflated with the EU - has come under separate attacks by PM David Cameron and Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.

Their attacks have elicited cross-party warnings from MPs that breaking with the human rights convention on which the court is based would severely damage Britain's "moral stature."

Mr Grayling claimed yesterday that the reputation of the ECHR has "fallen dramatically in recent times."

He insisted that Britain would not be coerced into rewriting the rules of whole-life sentences that the court has ruled illegal.

Mr Grayling said the need for the court to reform was now urgent, and that he and Mr Cameron believed Strasbourg was taking Britain "down the wrong path."

But Labour's Jeremy Corbyn urged the Justice Secretary to think again, suggesting that he would be approving a dangerous precedent for human rights legislation at home.

The Islington North MP said: "If Britain was to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights - and by consequence the European Court - where will our moral stature be in condemning human rights abuses in any other European countries and what would be the future for human rights in this country?

"Do you not think instead that you should be more positive and proactive about the necessity of human rights legislation to protect us all?"

Mr Cameron also recently threatened to "clip the court's wings" over its ruling that certain prisoners should have voting rights, and has promised to make scrapping the Human Rights Act part of the Tory election manifesto.

A joint committee on prisoner voting rights responded to the threats yesterday by stating that not recognising the court would "undermine the standing of the UK."

The committee also recommended giving certain prisoners serving terms of 12 months or less the vote.