Starmer's law officer who 'pressured' for Taylor Swift police escort

by · Mail Online

When the ex-shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry was snubbed for the job she had performed in Opposition, she spluttered: ‘I’m very sorry and surprised.’ 

But perhaps the appointment of Lord Hermer should not have come as such a shock.

A long-standing friend and former colleague of the Prime Minister, the 56-year-old worked with Sir Keir Starmer at Doughty Street Chambers. 

In 2019 he donated £5,000 to Sir Keir’s Labour leadership campaign. Unusually for the Attorney General role, the PM chose to recruit outside the political world and made Lord Hermer a life peer following the election. 

The pair became close when Lord Hermer joined Doughty Street in 1993, having completed his pupillage in Wales.

Lord (Richard) Hermer, Attorney General, at Downing Street for the final Cabinet meeting before the summer recess
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a bilateral meeting with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte in 10 Downing Street, London
Gerry Adams on stage during the three-day international conference at Queen's University Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement

He attended Cardiff High School before studying politics and modern history at Manchester University and qualified for the bar in 1993. 

When Lord Hermer was made a KC in 2009, it was the future prime minister who gave the toast at his silk ceremony. 

The friends are said to share similar views. 

Lord Hermer once told a newspaper that if he could enact a law it would be ‘The European Union (Please Can We Come Back?) Act’. 

He also spoke out about the illegality of the Rwanda Bill on a podcast before the scheme was axed by Sir Keir. 

The barrister, formerly known as Richard Hermer, KC, has made a career in high profile human rights cases and isn’t afraid to court controversy. 

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Last year he represented Gerry Adams in a claim brought against him and the Provisional IRA by victims of bombings in London and Manchester.

Controversially he argued that part of the case against Mr Adams and the Provisional IRA ought to be struck out, as the PIRA was an ‘unincorporated association’ which was ‘incapable in law of being sued’. 

The barrister, who was appointed a deputy High Court judge in 2019, advised Labour last year on a Bill designed to ban public bodies from boycotting other countries. 

The lawyer has previously acted for the mother of one of the ‘Beatles’ Isis killers in a landmark Supreme Court case that prevented the UK from sharing evidence with the US for criminal proceedings. 

In another high profile case, he argued that Isis bride Shamima Begum should have been allowed to return to the UK to participate in her appeal not to have her citizenship revoked. 

Lord Hermer represented former Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Zubaydah who claimed that UK security and intelligence services were complicit in his mistreatment and torture. 

He also brought a judicial review case on behalf of Afghan families to the UK’s official inquiry into allegations that British Special Forces covered up murders there.