A lawyer in Number 10

What of prime minister-inwaiting Keir Starmer’s views on legal issues?

AS I WRITE THIS, SIR KEIR Starmer is on the cusp of becoming prime minister. The first lawyer of any note to be PM since H. H. Asquith KC more than a century ago, his views on legal and constitutional issues are naturally of some interest. This is not least because, as a young radical lawyer, Starmer, once the secretary of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, held views which are decidedly out of favour in today’s Labour Party. Take human rights. In an 1995 editorial for the Haldane Society’s journal, he began by rubbishing the idea that there was such a thing as universal and inalienable human rights. He then called the European Convention on Human Rights “almost redundant” in the struggle for socialism, endorsing Karl Marx’s critique of…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, July 2024

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