A cabinet minister minister refused to say Lord Hermer was safe in his job yesterday after likening Right-wing British politicians to Nazis.
Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to sack his Attorney General over controversial comments he made in a speech last week that were seen as directed towards the Tories and Reform UK.
Asked twice yesterday whether Lord Hermer’s job was safe, Defence Secretary John Healey did not directly address the question.
‘He’s a really good attorney general. He made a mistake. He apologised. We move on,’ Mr Healey told Trevor Phillips on Sky News.
The Government’s legal chief has suffered a backlash for referencing 1930s Germany as he criticised other parties for saying Britain should quit institutions such as the European Convention on Human Rights.
He faced calls to quit from opposition parties for his claims that their actions are akin to those of Nazi ideologists who called for state power to trump the law. He also faced criticism from Labour MPs and Cabinet ministers.
The Prime Minister’s long-time friend and ally was eventually forced to apologise for his ‘clumsy’ language, though he ‘rejected’ how it had been portrayed.
His remarks are also unhelpful for Labour, which is under pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform after its sweeping gains in the local elections.
A cabinet minister minister refused to say Lord Hermer (pictured) was safe in his job yesterday after likening Right-wing British politicians to Nazis
Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to sack his Attorney General over controversial comments he made in a speech last week that were seen as directed towards the Tories and Reform UK.
Ministers are looking to legally constrain judges’ interpretation of international law over concerns it prevents foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers – including sex offenders – from deportation.
Yesterday, Labour MP and ex-minister Graham Stringer accused the Attorney General of aiding the rise of Reform by ignoring voter concerns about immigration.
He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘He’s convincing Labour voters [that the party] does not understand their legitimate concerns about immigration.
‘It is not far-Right and Nazi to raise genuine concerns about the scale of immigration and the cost of housing migrants. He’s doing Reform’s work for them.’
A spokesman insisted Sir Keir has full confidence in Lord Hermer, but it comes after several controversial interventions by the legal chief.
He has upset colleagues over his adherence to international agreements and low-risk approach to legal challenges – and has also been accused of leading the ‘surrender’ of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius under the terms of a questionable deal.
Mr Stringer added: ‘Lord Hermer should never have been appointed in the first place. It’s his ridiculous advice that has led us to spend £30billion to keep a military base we already had.’
And Labour peer Lord Glasman, founder of the influential Blue Labour movements, added that the Attorney General’s remarks made him ‘unfit for government office’.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick and Reform deputy Richard Tice have all called for Lord Hermer to go.
