The problem with Lord Hermer

Lawyer or spin doctor?

LAURA PERRINS

The problem with Attorney General Lord Hermer KC is that he thinks he is one of the ‘goodies.’ It’s his sense of moral superiority and how he believes he is on a righteous crusade that irks the most.

When understanding Hermer you must understand the basics. He thinks he is one of the good guys. He believes as I have written extensively elsewhere that he is part of the group of people that will settle up the wrongs committed by the British Empire. He believes that the British state remains in some cases a force of evil and capable of committing serious wrongs that he, along with his army of human rights lawyers, will right.

This is why Hermer chose – chose – to represent the mother of an ISIS terrorist who was responsible for the torture and rape of innocent people (the terrorist that is, not the mother.)

This is why Hermes opposed the Conservative Rwandan return scheme that may have stopped people breaking into the country illegally, say like the three asylum seekers who raped a woman on Brighton beach. Hermer thinks these people are the good guys and the Little Englanders, the natives, are the bad guys. This is why he was on the side of Iraqis who lied about being harmed by British soldiers and against the British soldiers.

Hermer decided to put his considerable talents as lawyers into hounding British soldiers. He made up his mind long ago to choose to represent the liars and the terrorists because they were fighting against the British state, who in the minds of Hermer and his ilk is the biggest evil of all. This makes him the good guy. He didn’t have to represent these clients; he chose to. Now he is AG. Good luck with that.

Nick Timothy has written to the Bar Standards Board asking them investigate the claims made against Lord Hermer. Sir Keir Starmer KC, having been involved in some questionable cases himself, chose to appoint Hermer as AG. In the same way he decided to appoint Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador. This is the British establishment right now.

The Telegraph broke the story. “Lord Hermer’s key role in one of the most notorious witch hunts in British military history has been laid bare in thousands upon thousands of pages of court documents analysed by The Telegraph.

The documents show how Richard Hermer – as he was before becoming Lord Hermer in 2024 – gave key legal advice to lawyers acting for Iraqis suing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for torture and wrongful detention.

His clients claimed that Iraqi civilians had been tortured and executed after being captured on the battlefield at the Battle of Danny Boy. In fact, they were all members of the Mahdi Army – an insurgent group backed by the Iranian regime – and their claims were utterly fictitious.”

Hermer has denied all wrongdoing and says he was acting well within the ethical bounds of any lawyer.

But after years of investigations, the £31m Al-Sweady public inquiry ruled that the allegations were “deliberate lies” driven by “ingrained hostility” towards the British Army.

“The case, which became known as the al-Sweady scandal, was the most egregious example of false allegations being levelled against British troops in recent history.

The Telegraph has examined more than 25,000 pages of legal documents, largely drawn from a disciplinary case brought in 2017 against Leigh Day, a law firm, and three of its lawyers.

They were cleared of wrongdoing a few months after Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), another lawyer in the case, was struck off for dishonesty in a separate disciplinary case.

Shiner was later convicted of fraud in a criminal court, having admitted defrauding the Legal Services Commission of £200,000 in legal aid, used to pursue a legal case against the MoD over the Battle of Danny Boy.”

“The documents obtained by The Telegraph show that by January 2008 – four years after the Battle of Danny Boy – Hermer was, by his own admission, “substantially involved” in the legal case against British veterans.

His clients, it would turn out, were not innocent farmers but gun-toting Iraqi insurgents, backed by the Iranian regime.

Lord Hermer’s first involvement began in 2005 and he continued advising until 2015, when the false claims were finally dropped.”

The Telegraph believes the smoking gun for against Hermer was an email sent in 2008. In 2008 “the lawyers, including Lord Hermer, decided to go public with their allegations, and a press conference was scheduled for Feb 22.

On Feb 17, Mr Day sent a draft copy of the press release to Lord Hermer for comment, along with an email he had sent Shiner outlining the proposed structure of the press conference and the lines they would take. Lord Hermer replied, suggesting Mr Day might go harder.

EMAIL:

From Richard Hermer: M – I think the line to Phil works in getting the balance between making sure that the big story is out there whilst giving us some wriggle room if the killings did not in fact happen. Do you need to be slightly more explicit in the Press Release about ‘evidence raising serious concerns of executions of prisoners’ in order to generate sufficient interest or will the Today interview naturally bring in the punters later that morning (have you thought about a further press release late Thurs or early Fri referring to the Today interview?)”

This is the email that is causing Hermer a lot of trouble. Remember, the Phil, is Phil Shiner the solicitor later struck off and convicted of fraud against the taxpayer to the tune of 200k.

What this email reveals to me is that Hermer is not really acting as a lawyer – he is now acting as spin doctor for this case. Some might call this ‘strategic litigation’ where the court of public opinion is deemed as important as a court of law. Others call is lawfare.

It is clear that Hermer is no longer that interested in the what actually happened – hence the need for wriggle room if the killings did not in fact happen. (This is a classic lawyer tactic of ass covering.)

What Hermer is interested in ‘the narrative’. He along with the solicitors want to set the agenda and the narrative with the media and the public that British soldiers were guilty of serious wrong doing. The actual facts are neither here nor there. Maybe they will be cleared a few years later, maybe they won’t. Who cares, their reputation has already been tarnished.

Indeed, Hermer goes on in the email to say the following;

“Of some use if you face hostile questions might be the fact that when the allegations of mistreatment of Iraqis first came out in the press a few years ago there was an enormous media and army campaign to describe the allegations as scrullious (you might recall Piers Morgan was sacked for running mock photos that later were demonstrated to be exactly what happened at Breadbasket) – that in itself justifies the need to take these allegations seriously and to ensure the most rigorous of investigations (indeed, you can argue that it would be unfair on the Army not to without the fullest of investigations they will not be able to remove doubt that they were involved, if they are innocent they deserve the fullest Investigation so that that can be made crystal clear.” (My emphasis.)

(But who put the doubt there in the first place – the likes of Shiner and Hermer did.)

See what Hermer has done there? Such a clever clogs when it comes to media messaging and spin that he’d give Alastair Campbell a run for his money. Should they (the legal team with a crook in it) face hostile questions, just say in fact it is in the interests of the army themselves to have a full investigation, they ‘deserve’ the fullest investigation.

According to Hermer the soldiers deserve the witch hunt, the lawfare, and to be dragged through the courts for years. Congratulations! Your life is wrecked!

This is the kind of thinking these clever clogs lawyers come up with. An investigation into whether or not you brutally killed innocent Iraqis, is in fact ‘what you deserve.’ It is in your interests.

Hermer no doubt is one of those people who believe they are the smartest person in the room. But to a normal person and investigation like this, that will ruin you financially, mentally and your good name would be something to fear. But to Hermer turned spin doctor, it is something to be welcomed. Only a lawyer could think like this (I’m a lawyer twice over.)

A word on the Bar Standards Board. When I was training to be a barrister you didn’t fear the murderers or rapists or petty drug addicts you might end up taking instructions from in a small space: you feared the BSB. This the body that regulates barristers. This is the list of things considered to be serious misconduct and it includes dishonesty. There are lots of other rules around conflict of interest etc.

I remember we spent a good deal of time considering the ethical dilemma of whether to accept a bunch of flowers as a thank you from one your clients who was charged with theft. Personally, I think turning into a spin doctor for a solicitor who was later struck off and convicted of fraud is much worse.

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This article (The problem with Lord Hermer) was created and published by Laura Perrins and is republished here under “Fair Use”

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