Why was Boris-hating QC kept on as adviser?
A LEFT-WING barrister has continued in his role as adviser to the civil service investigation into Partygate despite a slew of anti-Boris Johnson tweets, it is understood.
Daniel Stilitz QC – believed to be a member of the Labour Party – was exposed as having posted online that the Prime Minister should not be trusted and shared comments accusing him of spreading ‘fake news’.
Yet despite his strong views, he was handed a high-profile role advising Sue Gray on her report into alleged lockdown-breaking gatherings at Downing Street.
Concerns were quickly raised over whether the anti-Brexit lawyer should have been part of team, with one Conservative MP branding his involvement ‘totally inappropriate’.
Yet, as the investigation nears its critical denouement this week, it has emerged that Mr Stilitz is continuing in his role as legal adviser to the inquiry.
In an initial update on her inquiries in January, Miss Gray said Mr Stilitz – alongside the Treasury Solicitor – had ‘provided independent advice as to the process’. Very little further information, however, has been provided on exactly how much or specifically what advice the Oxford-educated lawyer has given.
But in late April, details about the Left-leaning politics of Mr Stilitz, of 11KBW chambers in London, began to emerge.
Among his Twitter posts, he said Labour MPs backing the Brexit deal were ‘mugs’ and retweeted one post describing Mr Johnson as ‘our reckless dangerous PM’.
In 2018 he accused the Government of being in ‘a terminal mess’. In another post, from 2016, he wrote: ‘Why not join Labour? Now seems as good a time as any.’
Commenting on Brexit in 2019, Mr Stilitz said ‘most people don’t want Brexit’, and claimed: ‘The future of the UK is collateral damage in this mad Tory fight to the death.’
After questions emerged over his involvement in the Gray inquiry, Mr Stilitz deleted his Twitter account and has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said Mr Stilitz was in place before Miss Gray was appointed and that he had provided ‘independent advice … on the process of the investigation’.
She added that the judgment in the final report would be Miss Gray’s and ‘hers alone’.
She said: ‘Daniel Stilitz has extensive experience of government work, having been instructed by numerous departments across a wide range of significant cases.
‘As with all members of the Bar, his personal views are his own and have no bearing on the professional advice that he provides as an independently regulated barrister.
‘He is bound by the code of conduct which sets out that all barristers maintain their independence and act in the best interests of their client.’
London-born Mr Stilitz, 53, was educated at William Ellis School in Hampstead, north London, and graduated from New College, Oxford, with a degree in politics, philosophy and economics in 1990. He had two sons and a daughter with his first wife, and lived in a £2million townhouse on the same Islington street as Jeremy Corbyn. He remarried in 2019.
Mr Stilitz, who lists his interests in Who’s Who as photography, music and reading, was called to the Bar in 1992 and made a Queen’s Counsel in 2010.
In a wide-ranging career encompassing employment law, public law, commercial and sports law, he has represented government departments, City giants such as Goldman Sachs and sports stars including former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.
‘Why not join Labour?’