Kemi Badenoch ‘hypocrisy’ over hyperlinks with lawyer peer who defended Shamima Begum
Kemi Badenoch has been accused of hypocrisy after it emerged a peer with close links to her team was part of Shamima Begum’s defence team.
The Tory leader took aim at Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s questions for saying it would be wrong to strip the ‘Jihadi bride’ who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State aged 15 in 2015, to be stripped of her citizenship.
And she complained that he had appointed Richard Hermer, who acted for the campaign group Liberty in Ms Begum’s Supreme Court case against the government as his Attorney General.
A Lib Dem source said: “It’s a bit rich for Kemi Badenoch to be going on the attack on this given the Conservative Party’s own links to this case.
“It feels like Badenoch lives in a glass house full of stones.”
But the Mirror has learned Baron Verdirame, who was given a peerage by Boris Johnson, advised the UN’s defence team in the same case.
As well as having been close to Mr Johnson during his premiership, Lord Verdirame is the long term partner of Henry Newman, Ms Badenoch’s deputy chief of staff.
Lord Verdirame has taken part in a series of high profile court cases, including as counsel for the UK government in the “ Article 50 ” case at the Supreme Court.
He also represented Ukraine against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights in response to the Russian invasion.
And in 2021, he was instructed by law firm Leigh Day on behalf of the UN special rapporteur in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court case Shamima Begum v Secretary of state – defending Ms Begum against an ultimately successful bid to strip her of her citizenship.
A spokesman for Kemi Badenoch said: “Keir Starmer said the Conservatives were wrong to strip Begum of her citizenship, then he appointed her defence lawyer as his Attorney General.
“Now he won’t answer questions about removing citizenship from jihadis trying to come back to the UK. The Prime Minister is responsible for protecting the welfare of the British people and his actions to date suggest he isn’t taking that responsibility seriously.”
