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General UK politics VIII - The Last Tory

Keir Starmer
@Keir_Starmer
As @YvetteCooperMP sets out in her letter, the historic tweets by Alaa Abd El-Fattah are absolutely abhorrent.

With the rise of antisemitism, and recent horrific attacks, I know this has added to the distress of many in the Jewish community in the UK.

We are taking steps to review the information failures in this case
 
Andy_Ross said:
Keir Starmer
@Keir_Starmer
As @YvetteCooperMP sets out in her letter, the historic tweets by Alaa Abd El-Fattah are absolutely abhorrent.

With the rise of antisemitism, and recent horrific attacks, I know this has added to the distress of many in the Jewish community in the UK.

We are taking steps to review the information failures in this case
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It does seem strange that the Tories didn't know about his postings when they granted him British citizenship and that so many years went by and they never surfaced. What sort of checks did the Tories do before granting British citizenship to him?
 
Andy_Ross said:
He's an MP and Shadow Minister, why has he got the time to do it?
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There is that as well. If it was down to me tnere'd be no second jobs, but MPs in careers that require professional practice to maintain their eligibility to practice should be allowed to put in the necessary hours for public service or charity operations. For barristers, arguably, randomly assigned clients could count.
 
Darat said:
It does seem strange that the Tories didn't know about his postings when they granted him British citizenship and that so many years went by and they never surfaced. What sort of checks did the Tories do before granting British citizenship to him?
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He said what they wanted to hear - kill Jews.
On Monday evening, Reform UK said that it would change the law to ensure Mr Abd El Fattah could be stripped of his British citizenship and deported.
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You first, Nige.
The party's leader, Nigel Farage, said previous Conservative and Labour governments had "opened our doors to evil people".
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I think he forgot that the previous Conservative ministers are now mostly his prime Reform candidates. Can these people truly kick themselves in the nuts?
 
P.J. Denyer said:
Did he get the job via the 'Cab Rank' or is it a private engagement? If the former then attacks on him are no more justified than the ones on Starmer were.
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There is no "Cab Rank". All barristers work under the 'cab rank' principle. It doesn't mean that barristers are appointed simply because they happen to be next in line. It just means that if a barrister is approached by a client who is prepared to pay the usual rates for a case that is within the barrister's usual area of practice, and the barrister is not otherwise engaged, they are obliged to take the case, however they feel about the client. They are all 'private engagements'; the client's solicitor will decide which barrister is appropriate to the case, and offer them the brief.

The term 'cab rank' comes from the idea that a cabbie is not supposed to be able to refuse a fare if it's within their usual area, not from some imaginary queue of barristers waiting for clients.
 
Andy_Ross said:
The Roman Abramovich case is a Jersey case, the cab rank principle doesn’t apply.
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Actually, it seems that Jersey actually does have a 'cab rank' of lawyers: for the first 15 years after qualifying, Jersey lawyers are on a list, and the next one on the list is appointed to the next legal aid case.
 
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Mojo said:
There is no "Cab Rank". All barristers work under the 'cab rank' principle. It doesn't mean that barristers are appointed simply because they happen to be next in line. It just means that if a barrister is approached by a client who is prepared to pay the usual rates for a case that is within the barrister's usual area of practice, and the barrister is not otherwise engaged, they are obliged to take the case, however they feel about the client. They are all 'private engagements'; the client's solicitor will decide which barrister is appropriate to the case, and offer them the brief.

The term 'cab rank' comes from the idea that a cabbie is not supposed to be able to refuse a fare if it's within their usual area, not from some imaginary queue of barristers waiting for clients.
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The principal I'm applying is that if he 'had' to take the case it would be wrong to criticise him for doing so, as in the cases where Starmer has been criticised, but Andy has said that it's a Jersey case so he was at liberty to refuse it. That was the distinction I was drawing.
 
P.J. Denyer said:
The principal I'm applying is that if he 'had' to take the case it would be wrong to criticise him for doing so, as in the cases where Starmer has been criticised, but Andy has said that it's a Jersey case so he was at liberty to refuse it.
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I'm not sure if that's the case, even if it's a Jersey case he's still a member of the English bar being offered work he's qualified to do. Richards's letter to Badenoch seems to accept that the cab rank rule applies.
 
Mojo said:
I'm not sure if that's the case, even if it's a Jersey case he's still a member of the English bar being offered work he's qualified to do. Richards's letter to Badenoch seems to accept that the cab rank rule applies.
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Presumably a conflict of interest is a valid reason for not taking a case in the cab rank
 
P.J. Denyer said:
The principal I'm applying is that if he 'had' to take the case it would be wrong to criticise him for doing so, as in the cases where Starmer has been criticised, but Andy has said that it's a Jersey case so he was at liberty to refuse it. That was the distinction I was drawing.
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Starmer wasn't an MP when he was a barrister.
 
Andy_Ross said:
Starmer wasn't an MP when he was a barrister.
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I know, but it was a Tory attack line to criticise him for the people he'd defended when he was. I think you're aware of my view that MPs second jobs should only be allowed where practice is necessary to allow them to stay in their 'IRL' profession and then I would limit it to charity or public service roles, but the rules being what they currently are I'd consider this less of a story if he was compelled to take the case than if he has chosen to.
 
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