Labour MP calls for Keir Starmer to sack Attorney General Lord Hermer

Mr Stringer told the BBC: “I don’t think that the Attorney General should ever have been appointed in the House of Lords.

“He’s got no democratic experience, I think particularly when he’s making such big decisions, demanding every law basically goes before him, he’s spent billions of pounds on the Chagos Islands – the Attorney General should be in the House of Commons, so in that sense, yes.

“It’s both the accountability … and the particular policies this Attorney General is pursuing.”

Lord Hermer, who became friends with Sir Keir in the 1990s, has played a central role in the handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, with the deal estimated to cost up to £35billion over 99 years.

He has also been accused of trying to block policies by handing more power to lawyers.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has been pointing out alleged conflict of interests by linking Lord Hermer's previous work as a human rights lawyer, including representing Gerry Adams against IRA bomb victims.

Following Mr Stringer's broadside shot at Lord Hermer, Mr Jenrick said: “The public have had enough of Lord Hermer and so have Labour MPs.

"Starmer should never have appointed Gerry Adams’s lawyer as Attorney General.

"From the Chagos surrender to the betrayal of veterans who served in Northern Ireland, Lord Hermer’s fingerprints are all over Labour’s anti-British decisions.

"Starmer has a choice: put the country first and sack Lord Hermer or continue to defend his friend and donor despite all the damage he’s causing."

Despite Mr Stringer being the first of Sir Keir's own MPs to call on the Prime Minister to sack Lord Hermer, Labour Lord Glasman labelled Lord Hermer a "progressive fool".

The founder of Blue Labour added: “He’s got to go. He is the absolute archetype of an arrogant, progressive fool who thinks that law is a replacement for politics … They talk about the rule of law but what they want is a rule of lawyers.”

Lord Hermer also appeared to come down hard on critics of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The 56-year-old was forced to issue a grovelling apology after appearing to compare those advocating for the UK to cut ties with the Strasbourg court to Nazis.

Delivering a speech to the Royal United Services Institute, Lord Hermer said: “The claim that international law is fine as far as it goes, but can be put aside when conditions change, is a claim that was made in the early 1930s by ‘realist’ jurists in Germany, most notably Carl Schmitt, whose central thesis was in essence the claim that state power is all that counts, not law.

“Because of the experience of what followed in 1933, far-sighted individuals rebuilt and transformed the institutions of international law, as well as internal constitutional law.”

In the subsequent apology, a spokesman for the Attorney General said: "The Attorney General gave a speech defending international law which underpins our security, protects against threats from aggressive states like Russia and helps tackle organised immigration crime.

"He rejects the characterisation of his speech by the Conservatives. He acknowledges though that his choice of words was clumsy and regrets having used this reference."

However, a number of Labour veterans have put pressure on the Prime Minister to take a tougher stance on the ECHR, including ex-Home Secretaries Lord Blunkett and Jack Straw.

Despite the increased pressure on No10, Sir Keir remains convinced that leaving the Strasbourg court would put the UK on par with Russia and Belarus.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: “Let’s be clear: the ECHR underpins key international agreements on trade, security, migration and the Good Friday agreement.

"Anyone who is proposing to renegotiate the Good Friday agreement is not serious."