Anger as Keir Starmer’s high authorized advisor has spoken within the Lords simply 4 instances since turning into Attorney General
Sir Keir’s top legal advisor has spoken in the Lords just four times since getting the job last summer, it emerged yesterday.
Lord Hermer faced questions about why he was running scared from the dispatch box given his repeated lectures about the importance of accountability and the ‘rule of law’.
The Attorney General was appointed by Sir Keir shortly after Labour won the election last July.
But during a debate about post-Brexit UK-EU relations in the upper chamber, peers complained how they barely get the chance to quiz the Cabinet Minister.
Tory peer Lord Balfe asked: ‘I wonder if the minister could explain to us why we never seem to see the Attorney General in this House because he is constantly telling us how important international law is?
‘Maybe he could explain to us why we have this obsession with not being involved in any way with European law?’
He added: ‘Could the minister tell us exactly what the thinking is that we can get a reset without any agreement on any legal structure to enforce it?’
Responding, Labour frontbencher Baroness Twycross said: ‘I am not going to give a blow-by-blow account of ongoing discussions.
Lord Hermer faced questions about why he was running scared from the dispatch box
Sir Keir Starmer is facing growing calls to sack his top legal adviser Attorney General Lord Hermer
‘In relation to Lord Hermer’s presence or otherwise in the House, I see him pretty regularly.’
But records show he has only spoken in the Lords four times, with one of these being his maiden speech in July.
By contrast, when former prime minister Lord David Cameron made a shock return to the then Tory Cabinet in 2023 as foreign secretary after taking a peerage, he was subjected to a special monthly question time in the House of Lords.
Because he is not an MP, Lord Hermer cannot appear in the Commons and must be quizzed in the Lords.
Questions in the Commons are instead fielded by his deputy, Solicitor General Lucy Rigby.
It comes amid swirling questions about Lord Hermer’s suitability for the role after a series of revelations about who his former clients are.
They include acting for former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who has always denied being a member of the IRA.
The Government is repealing legislation that currently bars Adams from suing ministers over his ‘unlawful’ detention in prison in the 1970s.
Attorney General Lord Hermer is a former human rights lawyer
Lord Hermer has refused to say whether he recused himself from giving the Government legal advice on the law change which may now benefit his former client.
This week it also emerged that he spoke up in support of disgraced human rights lawyer Phil Shiner, even after his war crime claims against British soldiers in Iraq were dismissed by a public inquiry as ‘deliberate lies’.
He also acted for human rights group Liberty in 2020 in the case of jihadi bride Shamima Begum, arguing she should be allowed to return to Britain.
And he represented the convicted British terrorist Rangzieb Ahmed, who worked with al-Qaeda, in his long-running civil case against the government, and Mohammed al-Ghabra, an al-Qaeda terror suspect linked to the 21/7 London bomb plot.
In 2023, he represented the families of Afghan civilians at the Independent Inquiry on Afghanistan, which is scrutinising the actions of British Special Forces.
During Prime Minister’s Questions this week, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch questioned whether Lord Hermer believes ‘in our country and everything we stand for.’
He is a close friend of the Prime Minister and donated £5,000 towards Sir Keir’s 2020 campaign to become Labour leader.
