Time to sack ‘activist' judges, says Robert Jenrick

Telegraph

2 days ago

Robert Jenrick makes for an unlikely radical.
The shadow justice secretary stands at just 5ft 8in and has a gentleness in manner that belies his tub-thumping rhetoric.
A list of ministerial briefs during the Tory government years that includes taxes, local government, planning matters and migration does not necessarily scream revolutionary.
Yet as the Conservative Party attempts to feel its way back to relevance in the wilderness of Opposition, Jenrick is emerging as one of its most challenging thinkers in the House of Commons.
His explicit declaration that the only way to tackle the small boats crisis was pulling the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was put at the centre of his Tory leadership campaign last summer.
Jenrick lost that race, beaten by Kemi Badenoch in the final two. But now Badenoch, who dismissed the position at the time as too hastily declared, looks set to formally adopt the stance at her party conference in the autumn.
A natural progression
This month a trip to Calais to see the efforts some migrants are taking to cross the English Channel, with dramatic footage of what he saw posted on social media, has proved the launching point for another eye-catching – and potentially provocative – proposal.
It is time to make it much easier to sack 'activist' judges.
'I come to this from the simple principle that judges are there to uphold the law which is made by Parliament,' explains Jenrick, talking through his new idea with The Telegraph and also taking stock a year on from his party's hammering at the election.
'If judges want to enter the political sphere themselves, then they should stop being judges and go into politics. We have to have a situation where judges who act politically and bring their own personal politics into their job as a judge are held to account and frankly, can be removed.'
The thinking is, for Jenrick, a natural progression of his arguments on the ECHR.
Abandoning the ECHR and reforming Britain's human rights would make it markedly harder for people who reach Britain illegally to fight deportation on family grounds, as his argument goes. But then it would be time to reform the judiciary.
Are judges really acting on personal politics rather than the law? Absolutely, Jenrick says: 'I have exposed a number of examples of this, judges who have in the past tweeted highly political, partisan messages.
'Judges who, in the past, have been trustees of charities which are highly partisan. I think that is bringing the historic independence of our judiciary into serious disrepute, and we've got to change that.'
So what exactly is Jenrick proposing to do about it? Two things: Tighter checks for partisanship on appointment and a more robust system for removals if political meddling is proved.
The first is all about a creature of Sir Tony Blair's invention: The Judicial Appointments Commission.
Before his 2005 Constitutional Reform Act, the appointment of judges effectively lay in the hands of a politician – the Lord Chancellor. But the Blair reforms gave the power to a newly created body of independents.
Jenrick believes the body is flawed. As part of a wider policy review he is exploring putting the appointments back in the hands of the Lord Chancellor, though final conclusions are yet to be decided.
As for a better system for removing judges, the current set-up is a complicated web of responsibilities. For senior judges, both houses of Parliament must vote them out. For lower courts, a recommendation of removal after an investigation into wrongdoing is needed.
All this may be setting off alarm bells for some. Theresa May's confrontation with the Supreme Court after it ruled MPs had to approve the triggering of Brexit is still seen by the party's moderates as a miscalculation.
Surely this is all a step towards greater politicisation of the judiciary? Jenrick argues the opposite – the moves are needed to weed out judges who are already acting on their partisan instincts.
'In some areas our judges are among the most respected in the world, like in the commercial courts,' he says. 'But in others, like immigration tribunals, the independence of the judiciary is being brought into disrepute.
'There's no point extricating ourselves from activist judges in Strasbourg only to be beholden to activist judges here.'
The new proposals are a mark of how far Jenrick, once considered a loyal Cameroon, has travelled in the last decade on the Conservative spectrum. No clearer is this seen than on immigration.
Jenrick has called Boris Johnson's loosening of the border after Brexit, which saw annual net migration peak at 900,000, 'probably the worst public policy decision of my lifetime'.
He resigned as immigration minister from Rishi Sunak's government in December 2023 calling for a tougher Rwanda deportation policy. (He says now removal to third countries is still an essential part of the solution to the small boats challenge.)
And the rhetoric deployed has become markedly more punchy. 'I want every single illegal migrant in this country to be deported', Jenrick says.
'Not just those who came across on small boats, but the ones who are coming across on the back of lorries or who've flown into our country and claimed asylum at the airport having chucked their passport down the toilet at Heathrow.'
So how exactly would that work? If the Tories won back power in 2029, is he suggesting finding the 100,000-plus people set to have arrived without permission under Labour – many more if you count back further than that – and kicking them out?
Yes is the answer, assuming they are yet to be granted legal asylum. 'We're going to have to marshal all the resources of the British state,' Jenrick says.
Strong-arming other countries into accepting deportations, possibly by giving them less visas. is one way he would hope to make it happen. 'We've pussy-footed around this issue, frankly, for far too long', he says on that.
It all sounds a bit Trumpian, doesn't it? 'I respect the fact that he's managed to secure the southern border,' says Jenrick of the US president, who he backed last year. Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has shown you can have 'a big impact very quickly'.
There are moderate Conservatives who privately, and not so privately, wince at Jenrick's rebirth as tribune for voters' anger at the mass scale of immigration.
In the eyes of some critics there is a word for it. 'Xenophobia', as the Today programme Thought for the Day host put it on Thursday, sparking frontpage headlines as well as a retraction and an apology from the Radio Four bosses.
So is he xenophobic? 'Look, I think that's just an absurd attack,' he fires back with incredulity. 'And it is comments like that that have attempted to shut down the legitimate debate in this country for far too long.'
To those who argue his rhetoric risks fuelling hostility towards immigrants, Jenrick has a similarly firm rebuttal: 'It's not my language that's fuelling anger and division in this country. It's the disastrous policies that we've had as a country for most of my adult lifetime. I'm not going to be squeamish about taking on these issues. Millions of people in this country are crying out for politicians to call it out and say it like it is.'
Those with a keen political ear may well hear in Jenrick's patter an echo less of President Trump than a populist insurgent closer to home: Nigel Farage.
The support surge for Reform UK has been jaw-dropping. Two years ago the party was hovering around 6 per cent in the opinion polls. Now, with Farage, the old scourge of the Tories back at the helm, it is hovering around 30 per cent, way out in the lead.
Does Jenrick understand what is driving people towards Reform?
'Yeah, look, probably more than anyone in the Conservative Party I've been painfully honest about the mistakes of the last Conservative government. We let people down and I'm very sorry for that. We made promises on some of the biggest issues facing our country, like immigration, and then failed to keep them.
'I think Reform is a symptom, not a cause. It's the failure of the Conservative Party that has allowed Reform to rise. Nigel Farage and Reform speak for millions of people. I share that anger and frustration that those people feel. What the Conservative Party has to do now is be honest about what it got wrong, listen to the public and, in time, bring forward serious answers to the challenges that are facing the country.'
The tone – one of shared frustrations with Reform voters, not of vilification – is notable. It is seen again when Jenrick is asked whether it would be politically wise for the Conservatives to leave the door open to an election pact with Reform.
'Well, we've been very clear on that. Kemi has said that there won't be a deal or pact with Reform, and, for his part, Nigel Farage has said the same.'
Yes, that is a statement of fact. But what about Jenrick's opinion? Does he think the door should be kept open? 'Well, there isn't an opportunity to do that,' he demurs again. 'I don't think that's likely.'
The position is much softer than that of the current Conservative leader, who has been explicit that she would not strike a deal with Farage ahead of the next election.
Westminster wonks will note there is nothing in his comments that could be thrown back were a Tory leader in the years ahead to agree to a pact – say, one Robert Jenrick?
Among political swamp-dwellers obsessed with musing on the party leaders of the future, the question of whether Jenrick still longs for the Tory crown is a common talking point.
Evidence frequently cited includes his tendency in the last year to stray into the policy briefs of colleagues with his interventions.
It did not go un-noted that his Calais exploration came in the same week another senior Conservative did a near identical trip – Chris Philp, who as shadow home secretary actually leads on migration policy.
How does Jenrick, 43, reflect on his ultimately unsuccessful tilt at the leadership last summer? 'It feels like ancient history now,' he says. 'I was pleased to be appointed shadow justice secretary and have thrown myself into that role.'
A neat pivot away from the question.
Videos, roughly shot and designed to fly on social media, have become a hallmark of his last year. Jenrick, eyes on the camera, walking and talking at pace. Jenrick's 'takedown' of Lord Hermer, the Left-leaning Attorney General. And, most famously, Jenrick rushing to challenge people forcing through London Underground barriers without paying.
That last video certainly cut through. Critics ridiculed him, claiming he was cosplaying as a police officer. Political wise heads – including some on Labour benches – praised him, saying he had forced into light a piece of petty criminality that infuriates punters.
Jenrick's team has stats to back up their case. The video posted on his X feed has been viewed 15 million times. There was also a 55 per cent jump in penalty fare notices issued by Transport for London the month after it came out, suggesting a nerve was struck.
So the videos aren't gimmicky? 'Well, I think it's obviously having an effect, isn't it? I mean, social media is clearly important. Most people under the age of 40 are getting their news on YouTube, on TikTok, on X. So the political class has got to change the way it communicates with the public.'
That theme – doing things differently, getting away from Westminster and the old policy approaches and messaging touchstones that the electorate appears to have lost faith in – has become the new Jenrick mantra.
The origin story which voters may increasingly hear about is one that begins with his hard-working parents: Jenrick's father Bill, who left school aged 16 to be an apprentice, and his mother Jenny, who went to school with Sir Tony Blair's future wife Cherie Booth and became a secretary at Littlewood's.
'Both my parents came from working class backgrounds in Manchester and Liverpool,' Jenrick says. 'They moved to the Black Country just before I was born and started a small business around our kitchen table with a white van parked in our drive.'
The childhoods of leading British politicians often enter the Westminster lexicon – see Sir Keir Starmer's references to his father the toolmaker. Jenrick does make clear he does not consider himself working class, given the success his dad eventually enjoyed launching his own fireplace fitting company.
From his mother, Jenrick also inherited faith. 'I believe in God,' he says. 'I go to church. My mum instilled that in me. She grew up in a very religious family.'
Church trips are not every Sunday, however. His American wife, Michal Berkner, 51, is Jewish. He jokes his three daughters – Marina, 14, Sophia, 12, and Lila, 10 – are free to make up their own mind when they get older.
His summer consists of daily runs. It was Ozempic which helped Jenrick visibly slash his bulk last year – 'It did the trick. I was overweight, it got me started and I'm grateful to that' – but he is off the stuff now.
'It's a great drug for people who are in a similar situation, but I've now moved on to the good old-fashioned way of losing weight and staying trim.'
As for parliamentary recess reading, Jenrick is not one for pool-lounger page-turners. A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle, by Julian Jackson, is his book of choice right now. Aides say he is taking inspiration from how De Gaulle hauled back his country from its malaise in the 1960s.
Throughout the hour-long conversation one particular R word keeps cropping up – not Reform, but radical. The country must be 'radically' overhauled, he says. Policy solutions must be 'radical'. The Tories must become a party of 'radical' change.
It becomes clear Jenrick sees the entire British political and governmental system creaking at the seams, at risk of breaking apart as political disillusionment turns from apathy to anger.
'I like to say that we are living through an interregnum, the period between two political orders,' he says near the end of the interview, like De Gaulle's France or Britain in the 1970s before Margaret Thatcher.
'We've got a small number of very big things very badly wrong in my adult lifetime: mass migration; asymmetric multiculturalism; over-regulation; the rise of quangos and a big, unaccountable state; the financialisation of housing and failure to build; a collapse in confidence in our institutions like museums and schools; net zero that's de-industrialised our country and is impoverishing many working people.
'I could go on. It feels to me as if that political order that has existed for most of my adult life is now fundamentally broken.'
One day could he be the person to fix it? There has been whisper around Westminster in recent weeks that the out-there gambler's bet – if such things are allowed in politics after the furore over Tory wagers last year – would be Jenrick becoming the next prime minister.
The argument goes: Badenoch may not make it to the 2029 election as Tory leader; Jenrick is the favourite to replace her; Labour's current unpopularity is set to get worse thanks to Jeremy Corbyn's new outfit. Then a small uptick in support for the Conservatives, at the expense of Reform, could be enough to see them left as the biggest party in a messy election result split six ways.
That leads to the question hanging throughout the interview needing to be asked: Does Jenrick still harbour hopes to lead the Tories one day?
'There is a leader of the Conservative Party,' he says. Which is not a no.