Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer is providing “impartial legal advice” a government spokesperson has stressed, amid continued concern about submissions critical of Israel the KC has written in the past.
Reports last week claimed Hermer, the Prime Minister’s legal chief, had written a chapter in a book about “Israeli apartheid” where he detailed how Palestinians could sue companies for weapons sold to Israel.
Within the book, published in 2011, Lord Hermer reportedly critiques Britain’s export licences, adding that they were being “used by Israel in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law.”
Asked about concerns from some in the community about the barrister’s past work on Israel, and his role offering legal advice to Starmer today, a government spokesperson told Jewish News: “The UK continues to support Israel’s right to self-defence in accordance with international law.
“The Attorney General is the government’s chief legal advisor and provides impartial legal advice.”
Hermer’s earlier submission to the Corporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupation appears to be based on his evidence given in November 2010 to the Russell Tribunal on Palestine.
The legal chief was one of many experts to offer advice at the London session, although wider concerns have been raised about the involvement of notorious anti-Israel voices such as former Pink Floyd star Roger Waters with the tribunal.
In January Hermer had impressed many attending the Jewish Labour Movement’s annual conference with his appearance in conversation on stage with Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner.
He told of his frequent visits to Israel but said he did not want to be in a world where it was not possible to “love” the Jewish state but also “be deeply concerned about the plight of Palestinians.”
Reports about Hermer’s contribution emerged amid wider criticism of Britain’s top lawyer, who is a close friend of Keir Starmer’s from their time working together in the legal profession.
Hermer, who was made a life peer after Labour’s election victory was also paid £30,000 to represent Gerry Adams in a High Court case against IRA bomb victims, while he was practising at the Bar.
The revelation came as Starmer’s government prepared to repeal the Legacy Act, which would allow the payment of compensation to hundreds of Republicans, including to Adams.
In the House of Lords Hermer acknowledged that he had recused himself in relation to some issues, but he did not specify which cases.
Ministers also told The Times that Lord Hermer was 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.”
Andy Burnham, the metro mayor of Greater Manchester, also said he was “extremely concerned” by reports that Hermer had held up implementation of the Hillsborough Law, which would introduce a legal duty of candour to all public bodies.
In an interview with parliament’s magazine The House, Hermer was asked last month if he believed the UK was fully compliant with international law.
Answering carefully he said: “I am currently not aware of any aspect in which the United Kingdom is knowingly in breach of our international law obligations”.’
Last September, the UK government sparked anger within the community with a decision to suspend 30 arms export licenses to Israel, a move in which Hermer is believed to have offered legal advice on.
But by long-standing convention, the content of advice offered to government by the attorney general is never disclosed.
In October 2023, Hermer was among eight prominent Jewish lawyers who wrote a letter urging Israel to remember its “international obligations” during its military offensive in Gaza.
The letter described Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October as a war crime but emphasised that Israel’s response must comply with international law.
At the JLM conference Hermer was asked about the Labour government’s decision to announce a suspension of 30 UK arms export licenses to Israel, Hermer continued to insist it was “purely a legal decision – the decision that this government made.”
He stressed the decision was governed by domestic law, and that a legal test was made.
Hermer rejected claims made by another lawyer in the audience that legal decisions were inevitably also the result of “interpretation”.
Asked about the problems faced by Jewish students on campuses in the aftermath of October 7, Hermer said he was “absolutely” concerned, not least because he is “the father of a child on a campus who is involved in Jewish life.”
He also expressed his commitment to the concept of “Rosh Gadol” or “taking leadership”.
Hermer, a member of Alyth Gardens shul, noted that currently in the world there were countless people, “amplified by social media” who took “extreme positions not trying to look at things through the eyes of others, occasionally sympathising, but never empathising, and not trying to find common ground”.
