The Attorney General is under fresh pressure after he was accused of a conflict of interest over a “war crimes” inquiry into the SAS.
Lord Hermer has already refused to reveal whether he advised the Government on decisions that paved the way for compensation to be paid to Gerry Adams despite having represented the former Sinn Fein leader in the past.
On Thursday, a separate conflict of interest issue emerged over Lord Hermer’s recent representation of families accusing Britain’s Armed Forces of murder.
The allegations of extrajudicial killings by special forces are central to the Afghanistan inquiry, an ongoing statutory probe which will make recommendations to the Government.
In an intervention on Thursday afternoon, Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, called for the Attorney General to “publicly recuse” himself from any involvement in the inquiry.
He also questioned whether Lord Hermer’s recent legal experience would mean he was “significantly” constrained in his role and warned his position may become “untenable”.
Lord Hermer’s critics say his past legal work will constrain him in his job as Attorney General – Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images
He said: “The Attorney General should publicly recuse himself from any involvement in the Afghanistan inquiry, and all other recent matters he pursued as a lawyer.”
He added: “Never before has there been an Attorney General who has previously taken up cases against the British government to such a degree as Lord Hermer. If he is to recuse himself from cases in which he’s acted – as he should – then his ability to provide legal advice to Government will be significantly constrained.
“Unless he is transparent and explains how he can perform his role without serious conflicts of interests, his position will become untenable.”
Sir Ashley Fox, the Conservative MP for Bridgwater who questioned Lord Hermer over his links to Mr Adams during a select committee session on Wednesday, told The Telegraph the Attorney General needed to “seriously consider” his ability to objectively advise ministers.
He said: “It’s basic practice to declare conflicts of interest in cases such as these, where the Attorney General has previously acted on behalf of clients against the Government. He needs to seriously consider if he is capable of giving the objective advice that is required of his position.”
A senior Army source said he hoped that Lord Hermer would recuse himself from the Afghan inquiry, if he had not already done so, in order to provide “an assurance of process”.
“I’d imagine he’d have to recuse himself,” he said.
Government approach ‘awful’
A second senior defence source added: “Lord Hermer should have nothing to do with this inquiry. This Government’s approach to veterans and the military is awful.
“They cancelled the legacy act and are paying out money to Gerry Adams instead. It’s repugnant stuff.”
In his opening statement on behalf of 33 bereaved Afghan families in October 2023, Lord Hermer set out how he would “seek to highlight evidence capable of suggesting that members of the SAS were applying a practice of unlawfully killing Afghan civilians”.
He clarified that this would entail “evidence that they were conducting a campaign of murder, not only obviously a crime in domestic law, but a war crime amounting to grave breaches of the Geneva Convention”.
Lord Hermer also accused Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins, a four-star general, of failing to alert the Royal Military Police to potential war crimes when he was a commanding officer of the Special Boat Service.
He asked why senior military officers did not disclose “a pattern of extrajudicial killings” and instead allowed evidence to be “buried in a safe for a number of years”, meaning that concerns were not acted on and more alleged executions took place.
At the time Lord Hermer made those comments, the General was in line to be appointed as national security adviser, one of the most senior aides to the prime minister.
When Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister the following year, one of the first decisions he made was to block the appointment. On Thursday, the Attorney General’s Office refused to confirm whether Lord Hermer had advised on that decision, citing the Law Officers’ Convention.
Sir Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary who ordered the public inquiry into claims that Afghan men were killed by special forces between 2010 and 2013, called on Lord Hermer to recuse himself from legislation pertaining to the Troubles due to his links with Gerry Adams.
Sir Ben, who said it had been alleged that Lord Hermer had been recused from the SAS inquiry, also defended Gen Sir Gwyn.
‘Disgraceful’ treatment
Speaking to The Telegraph, Sir Ben said: “On two occasions I appointed and promoted General Jenkins. He is an outstanding officer of the highest quality and it is not only disgraceful how he was treated having been fairly appointed national security adviser in an open competition but to now see him denigrated further by smears and innuendos is outrageous.”
He called on the Defence Secretary to “protect [Gen Sir Gwyn’s] reputation and career from such unwarranted behaviours, including from the likes of the Attorney General who in his previous role maligned him in front of the court”.
A senior source within the Ministry of Defence told The Telegraph that Gen Sir Gwyn was “respected at the highest level within the organisation”.
Another senior military chief told The Telegraph: “I think it does bring his [Lord Hermer’s] objectivity into question, specifically as his comments were not based on fact, rather on speculation and hearsay.
“I think at the very least our Attorney General should adhere to his own profession’s standards and conventions – and law – in that a person is innocent until proven guilty.”
The row over Mr Adams centres on sections of Troubles legislation which would have denied the former Sinn Fein president and some 400 other Republicans taxpayer-funded payouts over their detention in prison in the 1970s for suspected involvement in terrorism.
Labour decided to repeal the law last year after the Northern Irish High Court ruled that the Tories’ legislation was incompatible with human rights laws, and it has laid a draft order in Parliament to do so.
On Wednesday, Sir Keir insisted that he wanted to find a way to block Mr Adams and other Republican detainees from claiming compensation despite remaining committed to repealing the Troubles legislation. Downing Street officials declined to say how he might achieve this.
The Attorney General represented the former Sinn Fein leader in a damages claim by IRA bomb victims. On Wednesday, Lord Hermer defended his right to have done so but refused to say how Mr Adams paid him for the case.
Lord Hermer told MPs that the law officers’ convention, enshrined in the ministerial code, “precludes any minister from saying whether the law officers have been asked to advise on any given issue, let alone what we have advised”.
Despite mounting questions, on Thursday Lord Hermer’s office again refused to confirm whether he had advised ministers on decisions relating to previous clients, including Mr Adams.
Lord Hermer is the first Attorney General without parliamentary experience since 1922, which means he was involved in cases right up until his appointment.
In another case which could raise a potential conflict of interest for the Attorney General, in 2020 he represented Shamima Begum, the Islamic State bride, when she argued that she should have been allowed to return to the UK to take part in a case against the then home secretary.
Sources close to the Government’s chief legal adviser said the public could be assured there were rigorous systems in place to ensure that law officers would not be consulted on any cases that could give rise to a conflict of interest.