Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy has referred Attorney General Richard Hermer to the Bar Standards Board for his role in the Al-Sweady litigation against British troops. Alleging professional misconduct…
Timothy alleges that Hermer took the case on a conditional fee arrangement instead of off the cab rank, and continued as lead counsel even after it became clear claims against British troops were baseless. A public inquiry in 2014 found that allegations of murder and torture by British servicemen in Iraq were without foundation…
Timothy says Hermer advised Leigh Day in 2008 on a press release, suggesting language about executions be made more explicit to “generate sufficient interest.” He adds that Hermer was still pushing for settlements of between £45,000 and £55,000 for each claimant in 2013 when the case had all but collapsed. Timothy alleges Hermer continued to defend the claims’ legal viability in evidence to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in 2017…
The letter argues that Hermer has breached conduct rules around misleading courts and third parties, advancing improper claims, and pressing for public money in settlement of known false allegations.He also asks the BSB to waive its normal 12-month reporting window on the basis that the documents only became public yesterday and to open a formal investigation. Ball in their court now…
Read the full letter below:
Continue reading “Shadow Justice Secretary Refers Attorney General to Bar Standards Board”
Donald Trump has threatened to impose new tariffs on Britain if it does not disapply the Digital Services Tax on US companies. Trump told the Telegraph:
“I don’t like it when they target American companies, because basically, you’re talking about our great American companies, whether we like those companies that don’t like them, they’re American companies and the top companies in the world… We’ve been looking at it, and we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the UK. So they better be careful. If they don’t drop the tax, we’ll probably put a big tariff on the UK.”
The DST was imposed as a “temporary” tax on social media, online marketplace, and search engine revenues back in 2020. It is set to have raked in £944 million this year…
Trump also said Starmer could only recover if he scaled up drilling in the North Sea and dealt with immigration: “If he opened the North Sea and if his immigration policies became strong, which right now they’re not, he can recover, but if he doesn’t, I don’t think he has a chance.” No chance, he’s too busy arguing with the entire Civil Service…
The US administration is currently reviewing a raft of measures to punish NATO allies who didn’t take substantive part in the Iran war, including suspending Spain from the alliance and supporting Argentine efforts to take the Falkland Islands from Britain. Get HMS Dragon out there…
The King’s visit begins on Monday. Trump said of that: “I look forward to having King Charles come. He’s a friend of mine. We’ve spoken and we’re going to have a great time.” Important work for Charles to do…
Today we’re launching Right to Know.
Right to Know is a new campaign to stop Labour’s clampdown on Freedom of Information requests.
Labour is considering lowering the cost ceiling for processing FoIs, using ‘spiralling administrative costs’ as the latest excuse to limit government transparency. Government officials have also suggested that FOIs are dangerous because China could use their answers.
Labour wants you to stop asking awkward questions that embarrass the government. Don’t let Starmer get away with it…
Head to the righttoknow.uk website now to ask the questions you want answering. We’ll sharpen them up and send them off to the relevant department. Those who send a question will even get 50% off their Guido membership…
Shabana Mahmood has spent £1606.23 doing up her private office on Marsham Street. Nice for some…
Guido’s FOI Unit obtained the figures:
Tory sources say the private office has been significantly upgraded since they were in power. Co-conspirators can see a standing desk there…
Guido can report that Mahmood also has a large vanity mirror in her Parliamentary office. The Home Secretary has spent the day in France signing a £500 million deal with the French to stop and detain migrants attempting to cross the Channel. Mahmood has said the UK will pull out of an extra detention component costing £162 million if it does not show results…
The Sunday Times’ relentless Whitehall Editor Gabriel Pogrund has announced he is to lead the paper’s investigative division as editor. As reported by Guido last week…
Pogrund replaces the long-running editor of the Insight team Jonathan Calvert. Two other Sunday Times investigative reporters will join him in the expanded team. Happy news in the face of fading investigative journalism…
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”