800 lawyers protest against Johnson, Patel “hostility”

More than 800 legal professionals, including former judges, have signed an open letter protesting at the “hostility” shown by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel towards lawyers representing migrants seeking asylum.

The letter, published in The Guardian, comes in response to Ms Patel’s comments, echoed by Mr Johnson, at the Conservative Party conference earlier this month, referring to ”lefty lawyers” and “do-gooders”.

It again expresses the fears of many in the profession that such comments increase the risk of personal threats, and actual physical attacks, against lawyers who represent asylum seekers.

Signatories include three former Justices of the UK Supreme Court - Lords Collins, Dyson and Walker - and 11 other retired judges, former Director of Public Prosecutions Lord Macdonald, 84 Queen’s Counsel and 69 professors of law, along with hundreds of practising solicitors and barristers and the directors of Liberty and Justice.

The letter states that such political attacks “endanger not only the personal safety of lawyers and others working for the justice system, as has recently been vividly seen; they undermine the rule of law, which ministers and lawyers alike are duty-bound to uphold.

"We invite both the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister to behave honourably by apologising for their display of hostility, and to refrain from such attacks in the future."

In response the Prime Minister’s office said lawyers were "not immune from criticism”, and that the government was clear that any form of violence was unacceptable.