On Sunday 25th October, over 800 retired judges and barristers accused prime minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel of endangering the personal safety of lawyers.
The group has signed an online letter urging Boris Johnson and Priti Patel to apologise for their "display of hostility" towards those working in the justice system.
The signatories including Rajiv Menon QC, Sonali Naik QC and Judy Khan QC note, “We are all deeply concerned at recent attacks, made by the Home Secretary and echoed by the Prime Minister, on lawyers seeking to hold the government to the law. Such attacks endanger not only the personal safety of lawyers and others working for the justice system, as has recently been vividly seen; they undermine the rule of law which ministers and lawyers alike are duty bound to uphold. We invite both the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister to behave honourably by apologising for their display of hostility, and to refrain from such attacks in the future.”
The letter appears after home secretary’s recent remarks against the “leftist” lawyers who make removal of asylum seekers from Britain a difficult process by their way of seeking a judicial review. Prime Minister Johnson has also claimed during the Tory conference that the criminal justice system was being "hamstrung by what the home secretary would doubtless – and rightly – call the lefty human rights lawyers, and other do-gooders”.
Earlier, a 28-year-old man entered the office of Duncan Lewis armed with a knife and was subsequently charged with assault, racially aggravated public disorder, possession of, and making threats with, a bladed article in a public place.
