Richard Hermer is feeling the heat over his controversial client list and legal obstructionism in government. His office is refusing to say whether the Attorney General has received payments for legal work carried out before the election – a usual process for chambers which make use of Conditional Fee Arrangements. Today in the Commons, Tory MP Helen Grant pressed Solicitor General Lucy Rigby on why Hermer refuses to declare any past earnings—something previous Attorneys General have done. Rigby’s excuse? The ‘rules are different’ for a minister in the Lords:
“The Attorney General is in the House of Lords and therefore the rules which apply to the House of Lords and the Attorney General are different from the requirements that apply to the House of Commons that is the that is the difference between the attorney and I.”
That may well be the case, but Hermer is not a backbencher. He is a Cabinet minister as AG and the public interest in his previous legal work is established regardless of his current position. Labour ministers are complaining about his legalese interference…
Meanwhile, the daily barrage of bruising headlines isn’t going away anytime soon, with government sources and Cabinet ministers, including Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood, finding Hermer “very frustrating” and even “personally unbearable.” This headache for Starmer’s close mate isn’t dying down yet…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”
