Lord Keen of Elie, QC, tenacious lawyer who left over PM’s plan

Lord Keen of Elie, QC, built up a formidable reputation as one of the most brilliant legal minds of his generation.

Long before he resigned as advocate general over Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan, he appeared as a tenacious defence lawyer in numerous highprofile cases.

He successfully defended Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah at the Lockerbie trial, represented the family of Princess Diana’s driver, Henri Paul, at an inquest into her death and was a counsel at the Piper Alpha inquiry.

But it has not always been plain sailing for the Dollar Academy former pupil, who listsgolf, operaand shooting among his hobbies.

It was the latter pastime that resulted in embarrassing headlines when he was fined £1,000 for failing to secure his shotgun, which came to light when police went to his Edinburgh home following reports of a suspected robbery. He was cleared of professional misconduct at a hearing of the Bart Tribunals and Adjudication Service which considered the offence.

Lord Keen became prominent in politics when he became chairman of the Scottish Conservatives in 2013.

Appointed advocate general in 2015, he has represented the UK Government in legal challenges on Mr Johnson’s bid to prorogue parliament.

He resigned over the government’s Internal Market Bill, which Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis described as illegal.

Mr Lewis’s remarks appeared to contradict Lord Keen’s comments in the House of Lords when he told peers that the Bill did not “constitute a breach of international law or of the rule of law”. He said Mr Lewis had “answered the wrong question” when he said the proposals to override elements of the Brexit divorce deal relating to Northern Ireland would break international law in a “specific and limited way”.

Piper Alpha on the morning after the disaster.