Responding to the Home Secretary’s speech Fixing our broken asylum system which was delivered at the Conservative Party conference at the weekend, Amanda Pinto QC, Chair of the Bar Council, said:
“Attempting to paint lawyers with the ‘leftie’ brush seeks to demonise the very people helping constituents every day, without agenda, simply because they provide a vital public service.
"Lawyers carry out their duty and apply the law, irrespective of political persuasion, in accordance with our professional standards. Given our duty to the court and our commitment to justice more generally, barristers, as well as solicitors, must do just that. It is not the job of lawyers to limit Parliament’s own laws in a way that the Government of the day finds most favourable to its political agenda. The law, not politics, is what matters to a profession that upholds the rule of law.
“As the Lord Chancellor, a member of the Cabinet, said publicly a few days ago, ‘it is wholly wrong for any professional to be threatened, harassed or worse, attacked simply for doing their job – we must call it out and deal with it. And make the point that those who attack people providing a professional service will be subject to that very same rule of law'.”