\n<\/p>\n
Robert Jenrick has been accused by Labour of resorting to an unwarranted personal attack after comparing the attorney general, Lord Hermer, to a mafia lawyer and calling him a \u201cuseful idiot\u201d for Britain\u2019s \u201cenemies\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a combative speech to Conservative conference in Manchester, the shadow justice secretary also promised to remove judges with links to migrant charities, saying they \u201cdishonour generations of independent jurists\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jenrick told the annual conference: \u201cLike one of those infamous mafia lawyers of yesteryear, Hermer always chose a particular type of client \u2013 Shamima Begum, Osama bin Laden\u2019s right-hand man, terrorists involved in 7\/7.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince taking office, the advice we\u2019re told Lord Hermer has given to Starmer and his cronies, like to give away the Chagos islands to an ally of China and to pay billions of pounds for the privilege \u2013 in each and every one of these incidents, he\u2019s wasted no time establishing himself as a useful idiot for our enemies.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis rise symbolises the central truth of Keir Starmer\u2019s government: Labour is just not on Britain\u2019s side.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Labour source said Jenrick\u2019s comments are an attempt to disguise his own poor grip of the law. The source pointed out that a judge last month criticised the Tory MP for risking the collapse of a murder trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cJenrick thinks personal attacks are a good replacement for a basic understanding of the law. The attorney general is changing things for the better, including helping deliver the Hillsborough law, while Jenrick nearly collapses murder trials with his tweets. Who would you rather have protecting the rule of law?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hermer has represented Grenfell families and worked on the taskforce for crimes committed in Ukraine, the source pointed out.<\/p>\n
The attorney general has previously dismissed Jenrick\u2019s attacks for his previous client list.<\/p>\n
In June, he told the BBC: \u201cIt\u2019s a bit like attacking a journalist for the person that they\u2019re interviewing or a doctor for the nature of their patient. Lawyers are professionally obliged to represent those who come to them for cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t say no because you don\u2019t like someone\u2019s politics. The whole justice system falls apart if you do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the speech, Jenrick also claimed to have uncovered judges with links to \u201copen border charities\u201d and said a future Tory government would sack any members of the judiciary caught working on their behalf.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public rightly ask how independent are they. They dishonour generations of independent jurists who came before them, and they undermine the people\u2019s trust in the law itself. Judges who blur the line between adjudication and activism can have no place in our justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former supreme court judge Lord Sumption told BBC Radio 4\u2019s World at One programme that Jenrick\u2019s plans to sack what he called \u201cactivist\u201d judges was a \u201cserious mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would bring us somewhat closer to [the US] model. In the United States the supreme court has become subservient to the president and enabled him to behave like an autocrat. I think that\u2019s a serious business in the United States and we should be very careful to take warning from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n When asked whether judges who are named as \u201cactivist\u201d can sit on the bench again, he said naming the judges was a \u201cmisjudgment\u201d from the shadow justice secretary.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can\u2019t be independent if they\u2019re liable to be denounced by politicians. I think that is a serious mistake, a misjudgment on his [Jenrick\u2019s] part,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The speech came after the Guardian disclosed a leaked recording that showed Jenrick had complained that he \u201cdidn\u2019t see another white face\u201d during a visit to Handsworth in Birmingham.<\/p>\n Jenrick, who lost to Kemi Badenoch in a party leadership election last year, moved away from his justice brief towards the end of his speech.<\/p>\n He said there was \u201cmuch to cherish about who we are\u201d, including British food and drink, a \u201clove of pubs\u201d, \u201clove of animals\u201d, sporting heroes such as the Red Roses and cricketer Chris Woakes, a royal family \u201cso admired they make the most powerful man in the world go weak at the knees\u201d and \u201ca military that has defeated every force on the planet\u201d.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cEvery tide turns. I can feel Britain\u2019s fortunes turning.<\/p>\n \u201cSo let\u2019s pick ourselves up. Let\u2019s dust ourselves down. Let\u2019s draw on Britain\u2019s greatness to make it greater still, let\u2019s fight for a better future. Let\u2019s build this new order. Let\u2019s take our country back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Robert Jenrick has been accused by Labour of resorting to an unwarranted personal attack after comparing the attorney general, Lord Hermer, to a mafia lawyer and calling him a \u201cuseful idiot\u201d for Britain\u2019s \u201cenemies\u201d. In a combative speech to Conservative conference in Manchester, the shadow justice secretary also promised to remove judges with links to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[6536,673,4768,4692,9321,134,2517,2324],"class_list":{"0":"post-26596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-accuses","9":"tag-attack","10":"tag-attorney","11":"tag-general","12":"tag-jenrick","13":"tag-labour","14":"tag-personal","15":"tag-robert"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}