800 legal figures call on PM and Patel to end ‘ hostility’

MORE than 800 former judges and legal figures have signed a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel, calling on them to apologise for their “hostility” towards the profession.

The letter – which has been signed by three former justices of the UK Supreme Court, three retired High Court judges, more than 80 QCs ( senior Queen’s Counsel barristers) as well as hundreds of other lawyers – is in response to “recent attacks, made by the Home Secretary and echoed by the Prime Minister, on lawyers seeking to hold the Government to the law”.

Earlier this year, the Home Office was forced to abandon using a video which accused “activist lawyers” representing migrants of trying to disrupt the asylum system after a barrage of complaints.

And this month, at the Conservative Party’s online conference, Mr Johnson ramped up the rhetoric in the battle between the Government and the justice system with his comments that the Tories were “stopping the whole criminal justice system from being hamstrung by what the Home Secretary would doubtless – and rightly – call the lefty human rights lawyers, and other dogooders”.

Last week, 28- year- old Cavan Medlock was charged with a terrorist plot to kill a solicitor over his role in representing immigrants.

A Government spokesman told the Guardian “any form of violence is unacceptable”, adding: “Lawyers play an important role in upholding the law and ensuring people have access to justice.

“They are, however, not immune from criticism.”