Human rights lawyer, Israel critic: Meet England’s new attorney-general

The senior government lawyer now advising Sir Keir Starmer made his career pushing legal boundaries and holding companies and states to account in high-profile human rights cases.

Richard Hermer KC, the newly-appointed attorney-general for England and Wales, has been a key figure in several contentious cases where the UK government’s conduct in sensitive foreign policy matters was scrutinised.

Judicial review cases he brought on behalf of Afghan families led to the UK’s official inquiry into allegations that British Special Forces murdered and covered up killings in Afghanistan.

He also acted for the mother of one of the “Beatles” from the terrorist organisation Isis, in a landmark Supreme Court case that prevented the UK from sharing evidence with the US for criminal proceedings.

“He is crossing the divide here now in going into government because he wasn’t a government lawyer at the Bar,” said Gavin Millar KC, a former colleague at Matrix Chambers, which Hermer led until his appointment last week.

“Personally, I think that’s a very good thing . . . he’ll bring all that experience to bear,” Millar added.

Hermer, 55, was one of a handful of surprise appointments made by Starmer as Labour returned to power after 14 years with a landslide election win.

The human rights lawyer was appointed straight from the Bar, bucking the trend of appointing an existing MP or Lord who also happens to be a lawyer, and a decision that his peers believe puts him at an advantage in his role as the government’s chief legal adviser.

“The great thing about Richard as attorney-general is that he comes to the office as a fully-fledged lawyer without a career that has been interrupted by politics,” said Geoffrey Robertson KC, the founder of Doughty Street Chambers, where Hermer worked as a junior barrister alongside Starmer.

“I expect he will be of greatest value to the government in helping its policies to avoid legal obstacles.”

The position of attorney-general is a varied role that will see him dispense legal advice to ministers, oversee the Serious Fraud Office and Crown Prosecution Service, and potentially even represent the government in its most high-profile court cases.

One of his first tasks will be to decide whether the SFO can proceed with charges against former Glencore employees over bribery in Africa.

Past roles indicate an interest in holding multinational companies to account. In 2021, the UK’s top court ruled that thousands of Nigerian villagers could pursue Shell as a parent company over oil spills linked to its subsidiary in the region, in a groundbreaking legal case led by Hermer.

“His court craft is first class,” said Martyn Day, joint founder of law firm Leigh Day, which has instructed Hermer on a number of high-profile cases. “His persuasiveness is excellent . . . he’s very good at gauging where judges are at.”

Hermer was commissioned by Labour last year to provide an opinion on a Conservative bill that sought to stop public bodies from taking foreign human rights abuses into account when making procurement decisions.

He has also been outspoken about the situation in Israel and Gaza.

Last year — coincidentally weeks before the Hamas incursion on October 7 sparked the latest conflict — he took a group of lawyers on a recce to the region, visiting military courts and meeting human rights advisers on the ground, according to people who were on the trip.

In an open letter published in the Financial Times in October, Hermer was one of a group of top Jewish lawyers to call on Israel to observe international laws in its response to the Hamas attacks. 

Now, Hermer may be asked to advise on the UK’s position on the International Criminal Court’s application for arrest warrants against Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Some party officials believe Starmer’s appointment of Hermer signals the new prime minister may be “willing to strengthen his position” on Gaza, something that cost the party votes and at least five seats in the election.

However, other officials insisted the appointment did not indicate that Labour would take a tougher line on Israel.

David Lammy, the new UK foreign secretary, said at the weekend that the Labour government would take a “more balanced” approach to the conflict.

Hermer has also spoken out about the illegality of the Rwanda immigration bill on a regular podcast he hosts. Starmer said that one of his first acts as prime minister would be to end the Tory plan to send asylum seekers to the central African country.

While Hermer has been more vocal about his beliefs than many at the Bar — he told The Times in a 2020 interview that if he could enact a law it would be ‘The European Union (Please Can We Come Back?) Act 2020’ — as attorney-general in many ways he will be on neutral territory.

Starmer — himself a lawyer who worked in human rights before becoming the Director of Public Prosecutions — already knows Hermer well.

The pair are “proper friends”, according to a Labour insider, who said they believed the appointment had been in the pipeline for some time.

“I can completely understand why Keir Starmer wanted to get a proper lawyer, a very experienced lawyer to do this important job,” said former Labour attorney-general Lord Peter Goldsmith.

Lord Charles Falconer KC, former Labour lord chancellor, said Hermer was “a clever, insightful individual” but also had a “good sense of humour”, suggesting a human touch that can be rare among senior lawyers and will help him as he plunges into the political arena.

“He is both a top intellect and top lawyer, but is popular with people.”