Attorney General Lord Hermer is an 'arrogant, progressive fool' who must be fired, says fellow Labour peer

A leading Labour peer last night branded Keir Starmer’s controversial Attorney General an ‘arrogant, progressive fool’ - and called for him to be sacked. 

Lord Glasman, founder of the influential Blue Labour group, said Lord Hermer has ‘got to go’, following warnings that his obsession with the primacy of international law is damaging the Government. 

Lord Hermer is a close personal friend of the Prime Minister who was parachuted into the Lords by Sir Keir after the election to take up the post of Attorney General. 

Before entering politics he spent years as a leading human rights barrister representing a string of controversial individuals including Gerry Adams and jihadi bride Shamima Begum and advising Caribbean countries seeking trillions of pounds in slavery reparations from the UK. 

In government he has championed efforts to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and been blamed by ministers for frustrating efforts to drive through change. 

In an interview with New Statesman yesterday, Lord Glasman turned on the Attorney General, saying: ‘He’s got to go. He is the absolute archetype of an arrogant, progressive fool who thinks that law is a replacement for politics... They talk about the rule of law but what they want is a rule of lawyers.’ 

His intervention threatens to blow open a growing ideological split at the top of government about Lord Hermer’s role. In a speech last year, the law chief vowed to make the UK a ‘champion for international courts and institutions’. 

But his insistence on pursuing the letter of the law has irritated some ministers who warn it is hobbling their ability to deliver for the public. 

He has also faced questions about whether his long list of former clients could create conflicts of interest. 

The issue came to a head last month when it emerged Labour is set to repeal measures which would have blocked Gerry Adams - a former client of Lord Hermer - from claiming compensation from the taxpayer over his detention in the 1970s for suspected involvement in terrorism. 

In a new report today, the Policy Exchange think tank says the government could now face a £2.7 billion bill for dealing with the ‘cost of legacy’ in Northern Ireland. 

In a forward to the think tank’s new report, former chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: ‘The approach to legacy appears at times to be being dictated by a maximalist approach to legalism, without regard to the underlying benefits or costs.’ 

Lord Hermer has said he will recuse himself from cases where he has a potential conflict of interest but has refused to say which cases that involves. 

Lord Glasman’s Blue Labour group, which is pressing for the party to rebuild its links with working class voters, is enjoying a growing influence with senior Labour figures, including the PM’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney. 

Lord Glasman said Mr McSweeney was ‘one of ours, we love him’. But he suggested the government was still going in the wrong direction. 

‘They’re still going ahead with the Chagos deal, they’re not grasping any form of industrialisation, particularly around Ukraine and defence, where we could go into a really serious position as the leading military power in Europe,’ he said. 

Lord Glasman, the only Labour figure at Donald Trump’s inauguration last month, also criticised Rachel Reeves, saying the Chancellor had become ‘just a drone for the Treasury’. 

He added: ‘There’s no vision of economic renewal and no idea about how to renew the faraway towns.’ Downing Street insisted Sir Keir has full confidence in Lord Hermer amid a growing number of hostile briefings against the Attorney General. 

Asked what he made of Lord Glasman’s accusation, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister’s appointed his whole cabinet, including the Attorney General, because they’re the best people to do the job and deliver on the priorities of the British people.’ 

And asked to respond to claims that the Government is neglecting the working-class, No 10 said: ‘I haven’t seen that specific comment, but I think clearly from the Government’s Plan for Change, that isn’t true. The Government has put boosting living standards for working people at the heart of the Plan for Change.’