The New Justice Team
On Monday I wrote in some depth about the law-related issues that would face Liz Truss as she became prime minister. Now she has announced her cabinet and thereby the people who will help her face up to this crisis.
Brandon Lewis - Justice Secretary
Since Lewis was appointed last night a number of jokes have been made about how the new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice will only uphold the rule of law in a ‘specific and limited way’. This is a reference to comments Lewis made in the House of Commons about a Bill seeking to amend the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement with the EU. He infamously said that the Bill would break international law but only in a ‘specific and limited way’, as if breaking any law in such a way is acceptable.
Lewis’ move from the Northern Ireland Office to the Department of Justice is suggestive of the Liz Truss government being more of a continuation of the Johnson regime than we might have seen under Sunak. Nevertheless many lawyers and legal commentators alike will be hoping that the removal of Raab at least means that the somewhat bizarre Bill of Rights Bill is now dead in the water.
Despite the jokes it will be worth giving Lewis a clean slate as he seeks to deal with a myriad of problems including the strike by the Criminal Bar Association and backlog in the courts.
Suella Braverman - Home Secretary
It is much harder to give Braverman a clean slate in this role given her previous involvement with legal affairs as the most recent Attorney General.