The attorney-general issued a robust defence of the disgraced solicitor Phil Shiner even after his claims of war crimes by British soldiers were rejected by the High Court, The Times has learnt.
Lord Hermer KC also approved an infamous press conference at which Shiner and another solicitor aired claims, later found to be false, of unlawful killings and torture by British soldiers in Iraq.
Details of Hermer’s professional relationship with Shiner, a former human rights lawyer and convicted fraudster who became known as the “scourge of the British Army”, will put further pressure on his position in Sir Keir Starmer’s government.
Hermer, who has faced questions about his representation of Gerry Adams, the former leader of Sinn Fein, was also instructed by Shiner’s Public Interest Lawyers (PIL).
In March 2015, after Shiner was placed under investigation by the solicitor’s watchdog following a High Court judge’s conclusion that claims of soldier wrongdoing were “deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility”, Hermer defended him at a legal event.
According to a decade-old recording unearthed by The Times, Hermer, an old friend of Starmer’s who was once part of the same chambers set, commented that Shiner had been a thorn in the side of the British government.
• Calls for ‘arrogant, progressive fool’ Hermer to go as Labour rift grows
“Phil has caused the government a great deal of aggravation over the last 15 years,” Hermer said.
“He’s brought successfully some extraordinarily important cases that have exposed systemic use of torture, for example, by the British Army in Iraq.”
Hermer said he did not know details of the investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). He said that human rights lawyers expected attacks from the media, adding that “I think it’s a rare example of something that steps beyond that”.
Three months earlier a £31 million public inquiry completely rejected claims of murder and torture, levelled by Shiner and a second firm, finding that the most serious allegations were based on deliberate lies by Iraqis. Shiner was placed under investigation by the SRA for professional misconduct and was struck off in 2017.
Shiner had been due to speak alongside Hermer at the March 2015 legal seminar, A Night of Creative Lawyering, but bowed out because of the SRA inquiry.
Sources close to Hermer said he had the utmost respect for the armed forces and that once the SRA case was proven he had clearly condemned Shiner’s reprehensible behaviour. He acted with PIL on two or three cases, years before allegations of misconduct were raised.
Earlier, in February 2008, Shiner and fellow solicitor Martyn Day gave an infamous press conference at which they detailed accusations of torture and execution. All serious allegations were later dismissed.
Legal documents show that, before the press event, Day approached Hermer for an independent opinion on the strength of the evidence to make sure he and Shiner had “not been sucked in by the whole business”.
Hermer was sent lines on what Day proposed to say. Hermer advised there was not enough evidence to substantiate murder for the purpose of a civil lawsuit but did not question the propriety of holding a press conference.
Martyn Day and two other lawyers at his firm, Leigh Day, also faced misconduct charges but were cleared of all wrongdoing. Hermer said he found it “utterly bewildering” that it could be a disciplinary offence for a solicitor to say that he found his client’s account convincing.
There was never any wrongdoing found by the SRA in relation to the press conference. Shiner was struck off for professional misconduct and last year received a suspended jail sentence for breaching rules in relation to obtaining legal aid. In a speech to staff at the Ministry of Defence in 2019, according to sources close to Hermer, he said that Shiner was “rightly removed from practice” after admitting an “unforgivable act of dishonesty”.
In 2005 Hermer had been instructed by Shiner’s firm PIL in a successful claim involving the detention of a British Iraqi. The two lawyers also appeared before the Court of Appeal in 2006, representing relatives of British armed forces personnel who were killed in Iraq.
The attorney-general has been under pressure to recuse himself from offering advice to ministers in cases in which he previously acted as a lawyer, including the decision to reverse a ban on compensation from former IRA terrorists interned during the Troubles.
Hermer, who has represented Sri Lankan asylum seekers to the Chagos Islands, faces further questions over his role in the controversial proposed deal to hand sovereignty back to Mauritius.
A spokesman for the AGO said: “Law officers such as the attorney-general will naturally have an extensive legal background, and may have previously been involved in a wide number of past cases.
“It is a feature and cornerstone of our legal system that legal professionals operate the cab-rank rule when it comes to clients, and barristers do not associate themselves with their clients’ opinions.”
