The popular press has played a major role in "demonising" the Human Rights Act, which the Conservatives have now said they wish to appeal, according to an expert.

Over and over again the popular press had "peddled false stories, gleefully and irresponsibly then taken up by politicians," Michael Zander, Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics, said in an article in the New Law Journal.

Professor Zander cited "Catgate" as perhaps the best-known example – the case in which Home Secretary Theresa May (pictured) told the 2011 Conservative Party conference about an illegal immigrant who could not be deported because he had a pet cat.