PM’s legal chief ‘helped write handbook’ on how ‘Palestinian victims’ could sue arms dealers in UK courts to fight ‘Israeli apartheid’_Nhy
Prime Minister Keir Starmer‘s legal chief is said to have helped write a handbook on how Palestinian victims could sue arms dealers in the UK.
Lord Richard Hermer KC, who is the Labour leader’s Attorney General, wrote a chapter in a book about ‘Israeli apartheid’ where he detailed how Palestinians could sue companies for weapons sold to Israel.
The 56-year-old detailed in the book published in 2011, whilst he was a lawyer for a private firm at Doughy Street Chambers, how lawyers on British soil were in a ‘better position’ to act in comparison to their American peers.
The introduction of Corporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupation says how it hopes readers find its contents useful in ‘the fight against Israeli war crimes, occupation and apartheid.’
Within its pages Lord Hermer critiques Britain’s export licences, adding that they were being ‘used by Israel in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law’, according to The Telegraph.
He also detailed the ‘proactive’ steps the UK could do in a bid to come down on organisations who sell weaponry to Israel that may be used in acts that violate human rights.
Using an example Elbit of how Palestinians could use the UK justice system to pursue civil claims agains arms companies , the Attorney General wrote: ‘If the company that was producing the drones or the missiles has a factory here, that’s sufficient [to bring legal action].’
Prime Minister Keir Starmer ‘s legal chief – Lord Hermer KC – previously helped write a handbook on how Palestinian victims could sue arms dealers in the UK.
He has also been outspoken in prompting the Government to issue Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an arrest warrant in the International Criminal Court
Smoke billows following Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on August 11, 2024
The legal chief was one of many academics and legal professionals who contributed to the handbook.
In 2024, Lord Hermer played a central role in Labour’s decision to suspend several export licences to the Middle Eastern country.
In August of that year, the Attorney General Richard Hermer KC is understood to have told Foreign Office officials he did not approve a decision to ban some weapons sales but allow others until they are certain which could be used to break international humanitarian law, The Guardian reported.
He has also been outspoken in prompting the Government to issue Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an arrest warrant in the International Criminal Court.
Previous clients of Lord Hermer include, former Sinn Fein MP Gerry Adams and Shamima Begum.
MailOnline has approached Downing Street for comment.
It comes after the legal chief faced backlash for ‘freezing’ government decisions with his overly cautious approach.
Lord Hermer KC has already been accused by the Tories of conflicts of interest and secrecy over the clients he represented before entering Parliament.
Now the Attorney General has been hit by hostile briefings from his own Labour colleagues about his guidance on legal risk.
Under rules he introduced late last year, government lawyers must now warn ministers their policies are unlawful if they think they could not be properly argued in court. Those with a high risk of failing can only be put forward as a last resort.
Ministers told The Times that Lord Hermer is pushing back on policies even when there is only a slim chance of them being defeated by legal challenges.
A source said: ‘He seems to think – and has said as much – that international law is more important than national law, and that’s totally insane.
People salvage some belongings from a damaged building following Israeli bombing on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 11. 2023
Palestinians watch smoke billowing following an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on June 6, 2024
‘It’s a massive misunderstanding of how the public see their Government and the laws that are made in this country. He thinks he makes policy. He doesn’t, but he gets involved in everything and he’s an activist. It’s causing this freeze on Government.’
Another insider called him ‘finickity’ and claimed he had become more ‘obstructive’ in recent months, saying: ‘There have been things that have gone to the wire because he’s still got problems.’
Government lawyers are said to have delayed decisions on new measures to tackle illegal migration as well as the Hillsborough law forcing public bodies to co-operate with investigations
Lord Hermer was challenged by Labour backbencher Sarah Russell in January over the ‘chilling effect’ of his legal risk guidance on the Government taking on commercial interests.
‘Giving evidence to the justice committee, he insisted: ‘If we are confident in our policies, having decided that these are policies we want to take, if we are confident in their legality or comfortable with the degree of legal risk, the mere fact that it is a well-resourced defendant on the other side will not stop Government, I imagine, in moving forward.’
Concerns have also been raised over ‘conflicts of interest’ issues, with the barrister in recent weeks coming under fire for refusing to disclose his earnings for representing the likes of Gerry Adams, Shamima Begum and a Guantanamo Bay detainee.
Lord Hermer, who represented the former Sinn Fein leader as a specialist human rights lawyer, has refused to reveal if he played a role in a proposed law change which paves the way for his former client to get taxpayer-funded compensation for being interned in the 1970s.
He has been accused of ‘hiding behind’ the law officers’ convention by saying it prevents him from disclosing which matters he had or had not advised on.
Concerns have also been raised over ‘conflicts of interest’ issues, with the barrister in recent weeks coming under fire for refusing to disclose his earnings for representing the likes of Gerry Adams and Shamima Begum
A Palestinian man pushes another on a wheelchair past building rubble at al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 5, 2024
He has also admitted he recused himself from some decisions because of potential conflicts of interest with his previous briefs.
On Thursday night, Tory justice spokesman Robert Jenrick told the Mail: ‘Lord Hermer is uniquely ill-placed to be Attorney General. He is mired in a cloud of suspicion as he’s hiding his financial interests.
‘He can’t provide advice on a range of critical matters because he represented so many clients against the British Government. And the advice he does actually provide stops ministers from getting anything done.’
Tory peer Lord Frost added: ‘The knives are already out. Being a friend of the PM won’t help him once he starts to become a pain in Government.’
Asked if the PM was concerned about the briefings, a No 10 spokesman said yesterday: ‘We wouldn’t comment on anonymous briefings and sources as a matter of principle. The Attorney General is getting on with the important work of government.’
He said Sir Keir has ‘absolute confidence’ in Lord Hermer.
