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The Independent
2 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Lord Hermer ‘regrets' comparing Reform and Tories' policy to Nazi Germany
The Attorney General has expressed regret over his remarks comparing calls for the UK to withdraw from international courts to 1930s Germany. In a statement, Lord Richard Hermer's spokesperson said that he acknowledged his "choice of words was clumsy" and 'regrets' them, but rejected "the characterisation of his speech by the Conservatives". Lord Hermer faced backlash for a speech on Thursday in which he criticised politicians who argued that Britain "abandons the constraints of international law in favour of raw power". Arguing that similar claims had been made "in the early 1930s by 'realist' jurists in Germany", Lord Hermer added that abandoning international law would only "give succour to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin". He also said that because of what happened "in 1933, far-sighted individuals rebuilt and transformed the institutions of international law". That was the year that Adolf Hitler became German chancellor. The speech prompted Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who has suggested the UK would have to leave the ECHR if it stops the country from doing 'what is right', to accuse Lord Hermer of 'starting from a position of self loathing, where Britain is always wrong and everyone else is right'. In a post on social media, she said: 'The fact is laws go bad and need changing, institutions get corrupted. 'Our sovereignty is being eroded by out-of-date treaties and courts acting outside their jurisdiction. 'Pointing this out does not make anyone a Nazi. Labour have embarrassed themselves again with this comparison and unless the Prime Minister demands a retraction from his Attorney General, we can only assume these slurs reflect Keir Starmer's own view.' Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he would get rid of the ECHR, and told ITV in April that 'we have to get back the ability to decide, can we really control our borders'. Lord Hermer's spokesman 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.' In his same speech to the Royal United Services Institute on Thursday, the Attorney General said 'we must not stagnate in our approach to international rules' and that officials should 'look to apply and adapt existing obligations to address new situations'. 'We must be ready to reform where necessary,' he added.
BBC News
2 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Minister regrets 'clumsy' reference to Nazi Germany in speech
The attorney general has said he regrets "clumsy" remarks in which he compared calls for the UK to depart from international law and arguments made in 1930s a speech on Thursday, Lord Hermer criticised politicians who argue the UK should abandon "the constraints of international law in favour of raw power".He said similar claims had been made by legal theorists in Germany in the years before the Nazis came to leader Kemi Badenoch accused him of "calling people who disagree with him Nazis," and urged the prime minister to sack him. A spokesperson for Lord Hermer said he rejected "the characterisation of his speech by the Conservatives".But they added the Labour peer "acknowledges though that his choice of words was clumsy and regrets having used this reference".They added that the speech was aimed at "defending international law which underpins our security, protects against threats from aggressive states like Russia and helps tackle organised immigration crime".In a speech at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, Lord Hermer said the Labour government wanted to combine a "pragmatic approach to the UK's national interests with a principled commitment to a rules-based international order".He said the approach was "a rejection of the siren song that can sadly now be heard in the Palace of Westminster, and in some spectrums of the media, that Britain abandons the constraints of international law in favour of raw power".Lord Hermer added: "This is not a new song."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."Adolf Hitler became German chancellor in Schmitt, a German legal scholar, was a supporter of the Nazi Party who sought to justify Hitler's policies in his writings on legal and political theory. 'Appalling judgement' The Conservatives and Reform UK have been critical of some elements of international law and the courts that enforce example, some politicians from these parties have called for the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), an international treaty which sets out the rights and freedoms people are entitled to in signatory countries, including the of the ECHR say it hampers the UK's ability to deal with migration issues, including deporting people who cross the English Channel on small who has previously suggested the UK would have to leave the ECHR if it stops the country from doing "what is right", said Lord Hermer had shown "appalling judgement" in his speech."Now he's calling people who disagree with him Nazis," she added."This isn't just embarrassing, it's dangerous. Hermer doesn't understand government."If Keir Starmer had any backbone, he'd sack him."Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice said Lord Hermer should apologise."If anyone on the right of politics used his language, there would be outrage," Tice posted on social media."He has shown himself as unfit to be attorney general."
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Attorney General compares Reform and Tories' policy to actions of Nazi Germany
The Attorney General has drawn comparisons between calls for the UK to disregard international court rulings and the actions of Nazi Germany. Speaking in London on Thursday, Lord Richard Hermer KC criticised the notion that the UK could breach international obligations, branding it a "radical departure from the UK's constitutional tradition". In a speech to the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) thinktank, Lord Hermer highlighted the historical context of dismissing international law, noting that similar arguments were made in Germany during the early 1930s. He said that the claims that international law can be "put aside" were made in the early 1930s in Germany. Lord Hermer voiced concerns over what he sees as a growing sentiment within the UK, including within the Palace of Westminster, to abandon international legal constraints in favour of "raw power". He cautioned against this approach, stating: "This is not a new song." "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." Lord Hermer also said that because of what happened 'in 1933, far-sighted individuals rebuilt and transformed the institutions of international law'. That is the year that Adolf Hitler became German chancellor. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has stopped short of calling for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as other Conservative figures have advocated. However, she suggested the UK would have to leave the convention if it stops the country from doing 'what is right'. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he would get rid of the ECHR, and told ITV in April that 'we have to get back the ability to decide, can we really control our borders'. In his same speech to Rusi on Thursday, the Attorney General said 'we must not stagnate in our approach to international rules' and that officials should 'look to apply and adapt existing obligations to address new situations'. 'We must be ready to reform where necessary,' he added.
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
UK's Starmer takes aim at Nigel Farage as the Trump ally becomes a growing rival
LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer took aim at political rival Nigel Farage on Thursday, saying the hard-right politician would trash the U.K. economy through reckless spending. In a sign of how Britain's two-party-dominated political system is changing, the prime minister devoted a speech at a glass factory in northwest England to attacking Farage, an ally of President Donald Trump whose Reform UK party holds just five of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. Starmer's Labour Party, elected last year in a landslide, has 403 seats, and the center-right Conservatives 121.
The National
5 days ago
- Business
- The National
No UK politician including Starmer will overturn Brexit, but that's OK
Here's a prediction. Future historians will look back on just 16 words and reflect on the extraordinary self-harm they caused the UK in the first quarter of the 21st century. Those 16 words are: 'Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?' That was the question asked in 2016 of UK voters over the age of 18 who took part in their country's supposedly 'advisory' Brexit referendum. History teaches that future generations sometimes look back on their ancestors and wonder: 'What on Earth were they thinking?' Brexit already fits into that category. Vote Leave narrowly won the referendum and the UK left the EU. But far from ending arguments about the country's relationship with Europe, these arguments have never gone away. They have intensified in almost a decade of recriminations, regret, rethinks and now renegotiations. One result is the miserable state of the UK's Conservative party that brought its people Brexit. They are in deep trouble, intellectually adrift, led (for now at least) by the hapless Kemi Badenoch, bereft of ideas, lacking real talent and facing challenges from the right and Nigel Farage's Reform UK party. It would of course be foolish to underestimate the survival instincts of the party of Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. The Tories will probably recover eventually. But Brexit won't. Brexit is already brain dead, clinging on life support. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government is reluctant to bury it, at least for now. But they appear to be gradually changing UK-EU relations towards something that looks like Brexit in name only, with their new deal to reduce trade friction and costly border bureaucracy. This will eventually enable UK goods and holidaymakers to pass more rapidly through European seaports and airports. These and other changes have been welcomed by supermarkets, retailers, exporters and meat and food processors across the country, plus many individual businesses and trade organisations, and by the public. The deal is of course opposed by the people who helped bring the country the Brexit fiasco – Ms Badenoch and Mr Farage. They claim the new deal is a 'betrayal' of the referendum result. But since the referendum was a supposedly 'advisory' vote on that vague 16-word question, the Brexit bunch are left fighting yesterday's political battles. It is unlikely the UK ever achieve as good a deal with the EU as that negotiated by Thatcher. Even so, the world has changed unimaginably since the 2016 vote It is true that since 1945, UK politicians have constantly argued and dithered about their country's relationship with Europe. After the Second World War, as former US secretary of state Dean Acheson memorably put it, 'Great Britain has lost an Empire and not yet found a role'. Mr Acheson believed the obvious role meant the UK joining with other Europeans. US President Donald Trump's 'America First' policies may confirm that observation and accelerate that process in future. Even so, the UK has often been reluctant to accept that its islands are tied by geography and history to the European continent just 40 kilometres from its shores. In 1952, France and Germany created the European Coal and Steel Community, followed in 1957 by the European Economic Community (later the EU). The UK did not get on board until 1973. Later, Mrs Thatcher negotiated hugely beneficial terms for the UK in the EU, but Brexit upended all that and upended her Conservative party too. Former prime minister Boris Johnson ruthlessly got rid of Conservative MPs who opposed the UK's exit from the EU. The resulting Brexit deal was a mess of trade restrictions, border checks, bureaucracy, long queues of lorries and forlorn UK holidaymakers delayed at EU passport control. This debacle explains why the Conservatives are currently enduring their fourth leader in three years under Ms Badenoch. Astonishingly, the Tories are now so unpopular in opinion polls that they lie fourth behind the governing Labour party, the Liberal Democrats and the upstart Reform UK. Three things are now absolutely clear. First, the UK's people overwhelmingly think Brexit was a mistake. Second, while few politicians dare speak about 'overturning' Brexit, the 'reset' announced by Mr Starmer is the beginning of the end for the Brexit delusion. Third – unfortunately – it is unlikely that the UK will ever achieve in future as good a deal with the EU as that negotiated by Mrs Thatcher in the 1980s. Even so, the world has changed unimaginably since the 2016 vote – changed by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Mr Trump's unpredictability and the constant threats about trade wars and tariffs. More positively, many European governments understand the value of the UK's defence industry, its military and its support for a secure Europe. Many people in the UK also now more clearly understand their common European home and the need to work together with their closest neighbours, friends and trading partners. Recent YouGov polling reflects how the public mood has changed. Almost two thirds (62 per cent) of Britons think Brexit has failed. More than half (53 per cent) say they would vote to rejoin the EU. Unfortunately, rejoining doesn't appear to be an option. And if the UK's people ever vote in any future referendum, it needs to be more carefully constructed than that vaguely phrased sentence of 16 ill-defined words that got the country into the Brexit mess in the first place.
