I'm NOT a huge lefty! Attorney General Lord Hermer dismisses claims he 'defends those who hate Britain' and hits out at 'two-tier' justice jibes as 'disgusting'
The Attorney General has rubbished suggestions that he's 'some huge lefty' as he hit back at claims he's dedicated his career to 'defending those who hate Britain'.
Lord Hermer, who was hand-picked to be the Government's chief legal adviser by Sir Keir Starmer, defended himself from Tory attacks over his past client list.
He also branded charges of a 'two-tier' justice system in Britain, which have been made following last summer's riots, as 'disgusting' and 'wrong'.
The Labour peer told the BBC that politicians using the phrase needed to think about the 'dangers' they were posing to the UK's 'essential institutions'.
Lord Hermer has been friends with the Prime Minister since 1996 when they worked at the same barristers' chambers.
He was handed a peerage by Sir Keir in July last year so that he could serve in the Labour Government as Attorney General.
But his time in the role has been dominated by controversy, including scrutiny of those individuals he represented during his time as a human rights lawyer.
Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has urged the PM to sack Lord Hermer.
The Attorney General also branded charges of a 'two-tier' justice system in Britain, which have been made following last summer's riots, as 'disgusting' and 'wrong'
'Gerry Adams. Shamima Begum. Osama bin Laden's right-hand man,' Mr Jenrick posted on social media earlier this month.
'Lord Hermer has spent much of his life defending those who hate Britain. Why on earth did Starmer hand-pick him to be Attorney General?'
Responding to the criticism, Lord Hermer said: 'The attacks on me are based on the fact that I represented some clients - obviously over 30 years, I represented thousands of clients.
'But the attacks are [that] I represented some individuals with reprehensible political views. It's a bit like attacking a journalist for the person that they're interviewing or a doctor for the nature of their patient.
'Lawyers are professionally obliged to represent those who come to them for cases. You can't say no because you don't like someone's politics.
'The whole justice system falls apart if you do that. It's really important. So on a kind of political level, I am untroubled by attacks on that.'
He added: 'Frankly, it tickles most of my family and friends that I'm being portrayed as some huge lefty, because that's not who I am.
'I'm progressive, and I'm deeply pragmatic in my politics.'
Lord Hermer also used the interview to address charges of a 'two-tier' justice system in Britain.
There were accusations that last summer's riots - in the wake of the Southport murders - were policed more strongly than past protests, with offenders given tougher sentences.
Those claims were fuelled by Labour's early release of prisoners to tackle jail overcrowding.
But Lord Hermer flatly rejected the label, saying: 'What some people were seeking to do, bringing up 'two-tier', was to make a comparison with the way that people were being treated for trying to kill police officers - and I want to reiterate that, kill police officers - with the response to protests on the streets of London.
'You can have views as to whether they're right protests or wrong protests, but they were not producing violence that you could even begin legitimately to compare to what was going on [during] the riots. That's where the two-tier comes from.'
He added: 'I think it's offensive to our police. It's offensive to our crown prosecutors who are trying to apply the law in the best faith. It is offensive to the courts, where independent judges are applying the law to reach the right sentences.
'We don't have a two-tiered justice system. We have one justice system, that is an independent justice system...and I think we all need to get behind it, not seek to undermine it.'
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