Legal profession hits back at Robert Jenrick threat against ‘activist’ judges
Legal bodies representing over 250,000 lawyers have hit back against “politically motivated attacks” on the legal sector as “irresponsible and dangerous”, a week after the shadow justice secretary pledged to sack ‘activist’ judges.
Last Tuesday, speaking at the Tory Conference, Robert Jenrick announced a sweeping crackdown on what he describes as “pro-migration bias” in the judiciary, vowing to remove so-called “activist” judges.
Jenrick claimed to have identified more than 30 immigration judges, both full-time and part-time, who previously volunteered for or provided free legal services to open-border organisations.
He also suggested that a future Tory government would introduce reforms enabling judges caught campaigning for open borders to be sacked, as well as returning the responsibility for appointing judges to the Lord Chancellor.
The shadow justice secretary qualified as a lawyer in 2008 and practised before he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Newark in 2014. His wife, Michal Berkner, is a partner at the law firm Baker McKenzie.
In a joint statement, The Bar Council of England and Wales, The Law Society of England and Wales, The Law Society of Scotland, Faculty of Advocates, The Bar of Northern Ireland, and The Law Society of Northern Ireland, said that vilifying lawyers “simply for doing their job” puts the judiciary at risk.
“Unlike politicians, members of the judiciary are expected to be strictly impartial when considering how the law should be applied,” the statement highlighted.
The bodies said that as a result of “politically motivated attacks”, barristers, solicitors, and judges have been subjected to violence, death threats, and rape threats, with some seeing threats being targeted at family members.
Jenrick honed in on Attorney General
The bodies stated, “We are deeply disturbed by this rising tide of intimidation targeting those who serve our justice system and uphold democratic principles.”
This comes as the same speech in Manchester last week, Jenrick compared the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, to a mafia lawyer.
He said, “One of those infamous mafia lawyers of yesteryear. Hermer always chose a particular type of client, Shamima Begum, Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, and terrorists involved in 7/7.” Adding Lord Hermer’s “rise symbolises the central truth of Keir Starmer’s government: Labour is just not on Britain’s side.”
Focusing on Jenrick’s comments, a Labour source hit back, stating, “Jenrick thinks personal attacks are a good replacement for a basic understanding of the law.”
The legal bodies representing 250,000 lawyers expressed that “lawyers are not their clients” and that, despite being “unpopular or despised”, they are still entitled to access the courts.
“Nobody is above the law, including politicians. Nobody is beneath the law’s protections.”
This also follows the concerns Lord Hermer raised last month in a speech on the attacks on the judiciary. He said: “We have seen an increase in personal attack on individual judges not only by the media but by British politicians, including frontbenchers in Parliament, in terms that would have seemed scarcely believable even only a few years ago.”
He also pointed out an increase in physical and online threats to judges and lawyers. “These attacks are as misplaced as they are dangerous,” he stated.