Labour calls on Braverman to apologise for defending PM aide
THE Government’s most senior legal adviser must apologise after defending Boris Johnson’s most senior aide’s trip to Durham, the Shadow Home Secretary has said.
Nick Thomas-Symonds called on Attorney General Suella Braverman to apologise for her intervention in the case surrounding the Prime Minister’s special adviser, Dominic Cummings, suggesting her actions undermined the legal independence of her office.
Ms Braverman had previously declared her support for Mr Cummings, saying “protecting one’s family is what any good parent does”, and endorsed a statement from No 10 which said Mr Cummings had behaved both “responsibly and legally”.
Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “I can’t comment precisely on the communication between the Attorney General and Durham Police, but what I can say for certain is this – the Attorney General was wrong to be out making public statements about an individual case before even the police had made a public statement, and particularly given her role as superintendent of the Crown Prosecution Service.
“She shouldn’t have been commenting on an individual case in those circumstances. That is to misunderstand the role of the Attorney General – to give unvarnished advice to Government without fear or favour – and at the bare minimum she should apologise for that.”
Asked whether Mr Cummings broke the law, Mr Thomas-Symonds added: “The guidelines that were set up, he broke them, and we know that because the police have told us in that statement had he been intercepted on that journey from the property in Durham to Barnard Castle he would have been stopped, and we know the likely advice he would have been given is to return to his house.”
Ms Braverman has said there was “no question of my having offered any public legal view (as you know, Law Officers do not publish their legal advice much less tweet about it), nor of seeking to pre-empt any formal investigation”.
She said she was instead supporting the decision to clarify the case.