10-07-2025
Attorney General Lord Hermer 'asks civil servants to snitch on ministers to give himself effective veto over Government policies'
Attorney General Lord Hermer has been accused of giving himself an 'effective veto' over Labour policies.
The peer has issued guidance to government lawyers stressing the importance of following international law.
The document includes what has been branded a 'snitch clause', urging civil servants to report any concerns that ministerial actions might be illegal.
The tweaks seemingly water down instructions issued by Suella Braverman in 2022 to prevent lawyers from 'blocking' plans.
In total, Lord Hermer – a senior human rights barrister before entering government – is said to have added 23 references to international law to the guidance.
Legal staff are also instructed to assume that every decision taken by the Government could face a challenge. Previously the advice suggested challenges were unlikely.
Critics have complained that Lord Hermer has put too much emphasis on the letter of international law. Just last month he was accused of 'blocking' Britain from helping to defend Israel against Iran strikes.
He is also said to have played a major role in 'surrendering' the Chagos Islands, the UK's last Indian Ocean territory, to adhere to a non-binding ruling by the International Court of Justice.
Sir Michael Ellis, a former Conservative attorney general, said Lord Hermer had 'effectively given himself a veto over all government business'.
'It is quite something if ministers of the crown within the same Government cannot be trusted, and have to be snitched on by their own officials,' he told The Daily Telegraph.
Tory MP Alex Burghart branded the guidance a 'surrender charter', adding: 'Measures like the snitch clause will undermine discussion across government and harm our national interest.
'Keir Starmer's attorney general is putting the partisan views of activist lawyers before the national interest.'
A source close to Lord Hermer said: 'This is desperate nonsense from a Tory party who have lost credibility on law and order and upholding the rule of law.
'Tory ministers routinely pursued unworkable gimmicks that they knew would be defeated in the courts, such as the Rwanda debacle.
'In contrast, this Government demands lawyers to be creative solution finders, enabling our ambitious Plan for Change to succeed – unblocking obstacles so policies are not held up for years in the courts.'
A spokesman for the attorney general said: 'Government lawyers advise ministers, but it is always ministers that make decisions on policy as has been the case under successive governments.'
A No 10 spokesman said: 'The role of the law officers, including the attorney general, is to ensure the Government acts lawfully by providing frank legal advice, but policy decisions are always for ministers to decide.'
