Attorney General Lord Hermer came under fire from senior Labour politicians last night who accused him of ‘doing Reform’s work’ by ignoring voters’ concerns over immigration.
He faced criticism for comparing calls to pull the UK out of international courts to the early days of Nazi Germany.
Last night, Labour MP and ex-minister Graham Stringer openly accused Lord Hermer of aiding the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Mr Stringer told The Mail on Sunday: ‘He’s convincing Labour voters [that the party] does not understand their legitimate concerns about immigration.
‘It is not far-Right and Nazi to raise genuine concerns about the scale of immigration and the cost of housing migrants. He’s doing Reform’s work for them.’
And Labour peer Lord Glasman, founder of the influential Blue Labour movement, added that the Attorney General’s remarks made him ‘unfit for government office’.
In a speech last week, Lord Hermer invoked 1930s’ Germany to criticise Tory and Reform MPs who have called for the UK to quit institutions such as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)to better deal with illegal migration.
He said: ‘This is not a new song. The claim that international law is fine as far as it goes, but can be put aside when conditions change, is a claim… made in the early 1930s by “realist” jurists in Germany – most notably Carl Schmitt, whose central thesis was… that state power is all that counts, not law.’
Lord Hermer came under fire after he compared calls to pull the UK out of international courts to the early days of Nazi Germany
There are also fears Mr Hermer is aiding the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and doing their work ‘for them’
There are fears Lord Hermer’s ignoring voters’ immigration concerns is doing Reform’s work. Pictured: A French coastguard boat is seen monitoring a boat packed with people
Schmitt was a leading Nazi ideologist who backed Hitler’s moves to override the German constitution and rule by decree in 1933.
Lord Hermer apologised for his ‘clumsy’ choice of words and his Nazi Germany reference, but stuck by the theme of his speech ‘defending international law which underpins our security’.
However, his words sparked anger across the political divide, with even Labour Cabinet ministers understood to be livid at his reference.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, whose own policy is to ‘disengage’ from the ECHR, called on Sir Keir Starmer, a long-term friend of Lord Hermer, to dismiss him for his ‘embarrassing, dangerous’ remarks and repeated criticisms of the Attorney General over the surrender of the strategically important Chagos Islands.
And Mr Stringer added: ‘Lord Hermer should never have been appointed in the first place. It’s his ridiculous advice… that has led us to spend £30 billion to keep a military base we already had.’
Last night, No 10 said that the Attorney General still had the PM’s full confidence.
