Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has launched a scathing attack on Attorney General Lord Hermer, claiming he has "built his entire career defending people who hate our country".Speaking to GB News, Jenrick told host Patrick Christys that Hermer was "handpicked" by the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and is someone who "doesn't like" Britain.FULL STORY HERE.
00:00So look, what's the implication here that Lord Hermer's like an enemy of Britain?
00:05Well, Keir Starmer handpicked the Attorney General to sit around the Cabinet table,
00:09the most senior legal officer in the government, and he chose his old friend, Lord Hermer,
00:15someone who has built his entire career defending people who hate our country.
00:20Gerry Adams, Shamima Begum, lieutenants of Osama bin Laden, alleged terrorists,
00:26people who have committed terrible crimes or who have tried to do appalling things to us and our allies.
00:33And this man is now in charge of the government's legal department and of actually defending the government,
00:40despite spending year after year fighting against the British government.
00:45You couldn't think of somebody less suited for this job, somebody who is bringing the office of Attorney General into disrepute.
00:51And the fact that Starmer appointed him says something very powerful about Starmer as a man.
00:58Starmer has chosen somebody who doesn't like our country to be its most senior legal officer.
01:04So the Independent Standards Commissioner has cleared him, said that he's OK, he's not in some way compromised.
01:11So it's important to say that.
01:12But one of the things that you really tried to go out in that video there was the cab rank rule.
01:17This is the defence that a lot of barristers, both including Keir Starmer and Lord Hermer, have, well, many people might say hidden behind at times.
01:26Would you want to just explain that to our viewers and listeners as you understand it?
01:29Yeah, so there's an important legal principle called the cab rank rule, which is used by many criminal barristers
01:35to say that they just have to take the first client that comes to their chambers to represent.
01:42And that's important because you shouldn't judge a barrister by the clients that they take on because people need legal representation.
01:51And our criminal barristers often represent people who have committed or accused of heinous crimes.
01:56And that doesn't reflect on the barrister who happens to be the one representing them in court.
02:01But that is total BS when it comes to Lord Hermer.
02:05He is one of the most successful human rights lawyers in our country.
02:09He was inundated with cases. He got to choose who he represented.
02:14And so when he represented Jerry Adams or Shamima Begum, it wasn't just that these were the next cases in the pile and he was forced to represent them.
02:24These were positive choices by him.
02:27And they speak to him and the kinds of people that he was willing to represent.
02:31You and I would not represent Jerry Adams or Shamima Begum.
02:35He had a choice. He chose to represent them.
02:38And I don't think somebody who chose to represent those people and many others should now be sat around the cabinet table of the United Kingdom.
02:44Yeah. I mean, just legally, by definition, none of those cases have been practically disqualifying from that role.
02:51I suppose it's more of a maybe more of a moral thing or a judgment call by our prime minister to put that man in charge.
02:57Just with that in mind, then, do you really think that Britain is safe with Starmer and Lord Hermer at the helm?
03:04No. No. Because you've got two men whose careers have been built on defending people who actively hate our country.
03:12And that speaks to the moral character of these people.
03:16They're not patriotic people.
03:18And they are now in charge of making the most important decisions for our country.
03:22And you see some of the decisions that they're taking.
03:24You know, they've chosen, for example, to give away the Chagos Islands to an ally of China and pay billions of pounds for the privilege.
03:31They've chosen to drop a winnable appeal in the High Court in Northern Ireland, which is now going to mean that we may well have to pay hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation to terrorist sympathisers and suspects, members of the IRA, for example.
03:48They've chosen to ditch the immunity that we had given to those who'd served in our armed forces during the period of the Troubles.
03:57Those brave men who are now in their 70s and 80s are going to spend the last days of their lives in court fighting for their reputation and their freedom.
04:06These are the decisions that they are taking.
04:09And they are a reflection on their character and the careers that they've built in the law.
04:14Well, it remains to be seen what Keir Starmer does.
04:16It's impulsant to say that as it currently stands, he's going to stick by Lord Hermer, who is a good friend of his, I believe, did the toast, actually, at Keir Starmer's ceremony when he became a then QC.
04:26He, of course, now will be classed as a KEC.
04:29And legally, there's nothing wrong with what they've done.
04:32It's maybe more of a questionable moral choice.
04:34People at home or who are listening can make their own minds about that.
