Latest news with #twoTierJustice
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Lord Hermer's denial of two-tier justice is a disgrace
This week, Lord Hermer was asked by the BBC about two-tier justice, the idea that the British state treats ethnic minorities more favourably than the white working class. This perception, so corrosive to faith in the rule of law, has become widespread since the crackdown on the Southport unrest last summer. Never one to read the public or political mood, Starmer's lawyer ally simply issued a blunt and contemptuous denial. Such claims are 'frankly disgusting', he said, and indeed 'offensive' to police, prosecutors and courts. He added that instead of criticising the British justice system, politicians 'need to get behind it, not seek to undermine it'. (Perhaps he should have a word with the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, who earlier this year had to intervene to block sentencing guidelines which she herself labelled 'two-tier'.) It's a woefully tone-deaf performance, suggesting that Hermer doesn't even understand why the Government's response to the Southport unrest gave rise to charges of unfairness. He argued that people were wrong to compare the policing of London Gaza marches, often awash with anti-Semitism but 'not producing violence', with the Southport unrest, since this saw attacks against police officers. No one would say violent rioters shouldn't be treated robustly. But what Hermer ignores is the way the state dealt fiercely with white, working-class Southport rioters in a way it never does with more favoured groups. Just weeks before, when rioters in ultra-diverse Harehills, Leeds, overturned a police car and set a bus on fire, the police reportedly ran away. Meanwhile, days into the Southport unrest, when armed Muslim mobs formed supposedly in order to protect their local communities, the police let them have free rein. In Birmingham on August 5, the result was a pub being attacked, with a man outside it suffering a lacerated liver, amid other disorder. Even more than this double-standard though, it is the punitive crackdown on online speech that has caused there were many who found themselves charged and remanded in custody for social media posts, the most high-profile is Lucy Connolly, imprisoned for 31 months for a single nasty tweet (which she later deleted) on the night of the Southport murders. As the Telegraph disclosed earlier this month, Lord Hermer personally approved the prosecution of Mrs Connolly for stirring up racial hatred, despite having the constitutional power not to. Hermer has also declined to seek to review lenient sentences for gang grooming offenders – but in his political judgement, it was in the public interest for Connolly to face up to seven years in prison over one nasty tweet. Former Attorney General Suella Braverman says she would not have consented to the charge. 'We don't have a two-tiered justice system', insists Hermer. We have an 'independent justice system'. But can anyone really look at the state response to Southport and claim it 'independent' from politics? Sir Keir Starmer politicised the justice system the moment he claimed all of those involved were 'far-Right thugs', who had come from out of town to cause chaos. In reality, subsequent analysis of the arrest data along with a recent report by the police inspectorate have poured cold water on those claims. Politicians were also swiftly claiming that online speech was a principal cause, with Hermer himself crowing that 'you cannot hide behind your keyboard'. This narrative was no less dubious – no one needed to be told by social media to be angry about the horrific murders of three children. Yet both became reasons for the police, the CPS and the courts to throw the book at people like Connolly over tweets. '[T]heir intention was always to hammer me', as Lucy told the Telegraph earlier this year. Lucy's two-tier treatment continues to this day. First, she was denied release on temporary license to care for her daughter and sick husband. This is a privilege which even murderers are sometimes granted, and which has been granted to others at Lucy's prison. Now she says she's being cruelly mistreated in prison. Does Hermer seriously think it's 'disgusting' to see this as unfair? Hermer can deny two-tier justice all he likes, but the more the public hears about cases like Connolly, the more the charge rings true. A recent YouGov poll found public confidence in the judicial system at an all-time low, with the proportion expressing 'no confidence at all' rising four per cent since last June. Berating people who feel these concerns will not make them go away.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Lord Hermer: Two-tier justice claims are disgusting
Lord Hermer has labelled allegations of two-tier justice in Britain 'disgusting'. The Attorney General said the criticism, which is widely used by Conservative and Reform politicians, is 'offensive' to police, prosecutors and judges 'applying the law'. Lord Hermer, who is the Government's chief legal adviser, said politicians using the phrase need to think about the 'dangers' they are posing to the UK's 'essential institutions'. Speaking to the BBC, Lord Hermer said: 'What some people were seeking to do – bringing up 'two-tier' – was to make a comparison with the way that people were being treated for trying to kill police officers – and I want to reiterate that kill police officers – with the response to protests on the streets of London. 'You can have views as to whether they're right protests or wrong protests, but they were not producing violence that you could even begin legitimately to compare to what was going on [during] the riots. 'That's where the two-tier comes from. It is frankly disgusting to start to draw those types of comparisons.' He added: 'I think it's offensive to our police. It's offensive to our crown prosecutors who are trying to apply the law in the best faith. It is offensive to the courts, where independent judges are applying the law to reach the right sentences. 'We don't have a two-tiered justice system. We have one justice system, that is an independent justice I think we all need to get behind it, not seek to undermine it.' Claims that the UK operates a two-tier justice system emerged in the wake of last summer's riots, which broke out after the Southport murders. Critics argued that some rioters were treated more harshly than other protesters, and that the Government's decision to use tough sentences to dissuade rioting was at odds with their early release policy for prisoners to tackle overcrowding in jails. Two-tier justice allegations have become one of the most highly charged arguments against Sir Keir Starmer from the Right. Nigel Farage told The Telegraph that Lord Hermer's comments about two-tier justice were wrong. The Reform UK leader cited the case of Lucy Connolly, the mother jailed for 31 months in 2024 for inciting racial hatred after the Southport murders, whose sentence has been highlighted as an example of 'two-tier' justice. 'The public have lost trust in our judicial system and in people like Lord Hermer. The Lucy Connolly case shows that the public are right. We are disgusted,' Mr Farage said. Richard Tice, the deputy Reform leader, who introduced a bill in Parliament this week to give the public the right to appeal 'unduly harsh' sentences, said: 'It is Hermer who is wrong and disgusting, for being so out of touch and in denial. 'He is the real danger to trust in our justice system.' However, it is not just Reform or Conservative politicians that have taken the judiciary to task for an apparent 'two tier' approach . Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, intervened to block guidance by the sentencing council giving special treatment to criminals from ethnic, religious and gender minorities. She said it would lead to unacceptable 'differential treatment before the law'. The Attorney General, who has been friends with the Prime Minister since they worked in the same chambers in 1996, has been dogged by controversy since taking up the post. As a leading human rights barrister, he was criticised for his former clients, caused a backlash with his legal advice from some colleagues and warned Sir Keir that supporting Israeli strikes on Iran would breach international law. He also claimed that calls for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights echoed Nazi Germany, later apologising for the 'clumsy' remarks. 'Hermer defends those who hate Britain' Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, urged Sir Keir to sack Lord Hermer, saying: 'Gerry Adams. Shamima Begum. Osama bin Laden's right-hand man. Lord Hermer has spent much of his life defending those who hate Britain.' Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 documentary Starmer's Stormy Year, Lord Hermer said he was 'untroubled' by criticism of his work as a barrister before entering politics. 'The attacks on me are based on the fact that I represented some clients – obviously over 30 years, I represented thousands of clients. But the attacks are [that] I represented some individuals with reprehensible political views,' he said. 'It's a bit like attacking a journalist for the person that they're interviewing or a doctor for the nature of their patient. Lawyers are professionally obliged to represent those who come to them for cases. 'You can't say no because you don't like someone's politics. The whole justice system falls apart if you do that. It's really important. So on a kind of political level, I am untroubled by attacks on that.' He added: 'Frankly, it tickles most of my family and friends that I'm being portrayed as some huge lefty, because that's not who I am. I'm progressive, and I'm deeply pragmatic in my politics.'
Telegraph
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Laurence Fox wears ‘two tier' cap to court
Laurence Fox wore a 'two tier' cap as he arrived at court over a sexual offence. The former actor, 47, is accused of sharing a compromising photo on social media of TV presenter Narinder Kaur, who regularly appears on Good Morning Britain. The cap was Fox's second apparent reference during his trial to 'two-tier justice' – the claim that the criminal justice system treats different groups of people differently. He had arrived at court in April with a cap that read 'two-tier Britain'. He appeared at Woolwich Crown Court charged with two counts under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, while Ms Kaur, who has waived her right to anonymity, sat in the public gallery. The former actor is accused of sharing a photograph of a person's genitals 'intending that the person or another person would see the genitals, and for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, and being reckless as to whether that person would be caused alarm, distress or humiliation' in the first count. The second count alleges he shared a photograph which showed, or appeared to show, 'another person in an intimate state, with the intention of causing that person alarm, distress or humiliation'. Fox not asked to enter any pleas The court hearing on Thursday was listed for plea and trial preparation. However, Fox, wearing a white shirt and grey blazer with jeans, was not asked to enter any pleas. A provisional trial, estimated to last four days, was set for Dec 6 2027 at the same court, with Fox granted bail to appear for a further case management hearing on Nov 14 this year. Sarah Forshaw KC, defending, asked the court if it would be possible to look at whether other venues may be able to accommodate an earlier trial because 'December 2027 is a long way ahead'. The police previously said Fox had been 'charged with an offence contrary to section 66A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003' which 'relates to an image that was posted on a social media platform in April 2024'. Section 66A of the Sexual Offences Act relates to 'cyber flashing'. The charge, introduced in 2023, makes it a criminal offence to intentionally share a sexual image of someone without consent, with the aim of causing alarm, distress, humiliation or for sexual gratification. Upskirting, which involves taking pictures of people under their clothes without their permission, became a specific criminal offence in 2019. Offenders can face up to two years in jail and be placed on the sex offenders register.
