If Sir Keir Starmer’s apparent indifference to politics led to his downfall, one symptom of this was his decision to appoint his friend and former colleague Lord Hermer KC as Attorney General. Now that Lord Hermer has resigned, and his ministerial career has been swept away with the other remnants of the Starmer regime, it is worth revisiting his time in office and the impact of Hermerism on this country.
If Hermerism can be summarised, it is made up of a belief that international law is inherently more legitimate and therefore more important than domestic law
Once appointed, it did not take long for Lord Hermer to make his mark. One of his first acts was to issue new legal risk guidelines for government lawyers that, as my Policy Exchange colleague Conor Casey and I argued, undermine political accountability while unsettling the relationship between international and UK law.
The guidelines soon drew backlash within the government, with ministers complaining that they impeded government business, with lawyers in two departments reportedly telling ministers they were willing to ignore Lord Hermer’s admonition. It was said that his nickname among government insiders was the ‘Herminator’, a reference to his status as a blocker of policy.
