Robert Jenrick attacks ‘activist’ judges in conference speech | UK News

Robert Jenrick has hit out at “activist” judges, as he set out Conservative plans to hand ministers a bigger role in filling judicial vacancies.

In his party conference speech, the shadow justice secretary claimed judges with links to pro-migrant charities had undermined public trust in the courts.

He pledged that if the Tories win the next election, they would reverse Blair-era changes that restricted ministerial involvement in judicial appointments.

Wielding a judge’s wig as a prop, he promised the move would stop judges “who blur the line between adjudication and activism”.

In an address that strayed outside his policy brief, Jenrick, who stood for leadership of the party last year and who continues to attract speculation about his ambitions, hit out at Labour’s record in areas including climate targets and the economy.

In a traditional conference dig at his Labour opposite number, he poked fun at various incorrect answers given by Justice Secretary David Lammy during his 2009 appearance on Celebrity Mastermind.

But he also took aim at Sir Keir Starmer, telling delegates the prime minister was combining the leadership style of fictional office manger David Brent with the “administrative grip of Blackadder’s Baldrick”, and joked that that former Conservative prime minister Liz Truss, who was in office for just 49 days, would need “paying by the minute” to be in the Big Brother house.

In recent months, Jenrick has become increasingly critical of court rulings in immigration cases, particularly appeals against failed asylum applications.

In his address in Manchester, he told party activists he had found “dozens of judges” who had “broadcast their open borders views” on social media, or “spent their whole careers fighting to keep illegal migrants in this country”.

He did not name anyone, but added that they dishonoured “generations of independent jurists who came before them, as well as the “vast majority” of judges, who “respect and revere” the wig as a symbol of their role as an “unbiased mediator”.

“The public rightly ask: how independent are they?” he added.

Jenrick announced that if elected, the Conservatives would abolish the Judicial Appoints Commission, a body set up by New Labour in 2006 in a bid to boost the transparency and independence of judicial appointments.

Establishing the commission significantly curbed the role of the justice secretary in appointing judges in England and Wales, handing them a limited veto over nominees put forward by the commission.

Further changes under the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition stripped them of their power to reject nominees for courts below the High Court.

Abolishing the commission, Jenrick argued, would “restore the proper role of our judiciary, putting ultimate power back where it belongs, in the hands of Parliament, and ministers”.

He added that the the role of appointing judges would return to the justice secretary, a cabinet minister, who would be “instructed to never permit activists of any political hue to don the wig, ever again”.

The party says it would also require judges to to publicly register their “charitable affiliations,” and give extra powers to the watchdog responsible for investigating professional behaviour among judges.

It has also announced plans to abolish another Blair-era body, the Sentencing Council, which issues sentencing guidelines to judges in England and Wales.

It follows a “two-tier” justice row earlier this year over guidance on pre-sentence reports for offenders from certain minority groups.

In response to that row, the Labour government said last month it would stop the Sentencing Council issuing new guidelines without the explicit approval of the justice secretary.

But Jenrick argued that the body was “not fit for purpose, so it must be abolished altogether”.

Former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption warned Jenrick’s proposals risked the US-style politicisation of the judiciary.

“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,” he told Radio 4’s The World at One.

Jenrick’s speech comes on the third day of the party’s conference in Manchester, where the Conservatives have faced questions about their flagging poll ratings and their direction of travel under the leadership of Kemi Badenoch.

Speaking to the , Badenoch insisted her approach to changing the party would “pay off eventually”.

At a conference event on Monday, Jenrick said there was not a leadership vacancy and he did not expect there to be.

“My expectation is that Kemi will lead this party into the next general election,” Jenrick said.