If Keir Starmer had any backbone, he would sack Lord Hermer, writes Chris Philp
30 May 2025, 17:34
Yesterday, Keir Starmer’s friend, former donor, and the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, compared calls for the UK to leave the ECHR to demands from those in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
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Lord Hermer’s comments are disgusting and offensive – he has lost all touch with reality.
The interpretation of the ECHR has been expanded and twisted by judges over the years to allow illegal immigrants and foreign criminals to stay in Western countries, regardless of laws passed by their parliaments.
Take an example which was reported just two days ago. A Pakistani drug dealer, who had seven convictions for 21 offences, including supplying heroin and cocaine, has been allowed to remain in the UK because deporting him would breach his right to a family life under Article 8 of the ECHR. Apparently, deporting this drug dealer would be ‘unduly harsh’ because of his role in talking to his son about ‘Islam and his culture.’ This was despite the child being ‘largely brought up by his white British mother’.
The Attorney General thinks people rightly questioning cases like this one are somehow comparable to the Nazis in the 1930s. It is no wonder that this Labour Government are failing to return people who have crossed in small boats when their Attorney General is spouting this nonsense. Just five per cent of those who have arrived on small boats since the election have been removed.
From refusing to fight the case against Kneecap, to advising the Government to hand over £30 billion and our territory in the Chagos Islands, Lord Hermer has shown appalling judgement time and again.
It could not be clearer that Lord Hermer is not fit to be Attorney General. If Hermer does not resign, Keir Starmer should show some backbone for a change and sack him.
Parliament should be sovereign, and Parliament alone should decide who comes to this country and who is allowed to stay here. It should not be judges in UK or foreign courts stretching beyond recognition the definition of the ECHR articles. These articles were written for good reason 70 years ago, but the modern interpretation of the convention bears no resemblance to what the original drafters had in mind. If the only way to protect our borders, by deporting all foreign national offenders and all illegal migrants, is to withdraw from the ECHR, then we have to be prepared to put our border security first.
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Chris Philp is Shadow Home Secretary and Conservative MP for Croydon South.
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