By DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 09:36 BST, 7 October 2025 | Updated: 14:13 BST, 7 October 2025
Robert Jenrick declared war on 'activist' judges today as he waved a judicial wig on stage and asked: 'How independent are they?'The shadow justice secretary used his speech at Tory conference to vow to sack some 35 justices he accused of having 'pro-migrant bias', if the Tories return to power.He said he had compiled a list of full-time and part-time justices who were part of a 'hidden network' who previously volunteered help or provided free legal services for open-border organisations.It comes after the Tories confirmed they would pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights, to prevent the Strasbourg court from blocking migrant removals. In a speech to the Conservative Party Conference Mr Jenrick set out a major reform of how British judges are appointed, returning to politicians the power to appoint them. In comments that are likely to trigger a major row with the judiciary, he said there were many who had 'spent their entire careers fighting to keep illegal immigrants in the country.'After producing the wig from a briefcase, Mr Jenrick said judges with links to open borders charities were akin to a football referee being a season ticket holder for the opposition.'They dishonour generations of independent jurists who came before them, and they undermine people's trust in the law itself,' he said.'Judges who blur the line between adjudication and activism can have no place in our justice system.'The shadow Justice Secretary said he had compiled a list of full-time and part-time justices who were part of a 'hidden network' In a speech to the Conservative Party Conference Mr Jenrick will also set out a major reform of how judges are appointed, returning to politicians the power to appoint them (file image)He continued: 'We will restore the proper role of our judiciary, putting ultimate power back where it belongs, in the hands of Parliament, and ministers, accountable to you, the people of our country.'So I can announce today that we will restore the office of the Lord Chancellor to its former glory. We will reverse the constitutional vandalism of Tony Blair and New Labour.'The Lord Chancellor will once again appoint the judges. No more quangos and they will be instructed never to permit political activists of any political hue to don the wig, ever again.'Mr Jenrick plans to reform the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) to give it new powers of investigation and remove any judge who engages in 'political activism' such as campaigning for open borders.A judicial register of interest would be established under the Conservatives, Mr Jenrick said, with the responsibility for appointing judges returned to the Lord Chancellor.However his attack prompted a furious response from former Supreme Court judge turned darling of the Right Lord Sumption.'If judges were appointed in today's polarised world by the Lord Chancellor, I do not think the public would have the same confidence in their independence,' he told BBC Radio 4's World At One programme.'The only possible reason for going back to the old system would be to appoint judges who were less independent or more political than the ones appointed by the Judicial Appointments Commission.'Lord Sumption warned that it would shift towards a US-style model, adding: 'In the United States, the Supreme Court has become subservient to the president and enabled him to behave like an autocrat.'I think that is a very serious business in the United States and we should be very careful to take warning from it.'He said the shadow justice secretary's attacks on 'activist' judges were a mistake: 'Judges have got to be independent of the Government and independent of political sentiment, I entirely agree with that.'But they can't be independent if they are liable to be denounced by politicians and I think that that is a serious mistake, it is a misjudgment on his part.'Justice secretary David lammy criticised the speech, saying: 'Robert Jenrick calls himself a patriot, but he tramples on the British values he claims to defend.'He calls himself a Conservative, but he threatens to trash the institutions and traditions that hold our country together.'The independence of judges from politicians is not optional. It is the cornerstone of British democracy. 'When politicians start deciding which judges can stay or go, that is democratic backsliding and Robert Jenrick knows it.'
