Attorney General Lord Hermer had a private dinner with the head of a law firm suing the government for millions of pounds in damages, The i Paper can reveal.
Hermer – Sir Keir Starmer’s chief legal adviser and a former legal colleague of the Prime Minister – met Martyn Day, co-founder of and senior partner at Leigh Day, on the evening of 17 December.
The law firm is acting for more than 3,000 troops who are currently suing the Minsitry of Defence over disputed allegations that it overcharged them rent on their military accommodation.
Leigh Day has a track record of representing clients taking legal action against the government.
Senior ministers often meet a range of individuals linked to their brief. However, a private dinner with the co-founder of a law firm that is bringing a multi-million-pound action against the Government has led to calls for the release of details of what was discussed at the meal.
One of those present at the dinner said it was a “long-postponed social meeting of friends”.
But a senior Labour MP described the meeting as “inappropriate” and a former Conservative justice minister said a dinner between the government’s top legal adviser and a firm suing the MoD “looked terrible”.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith called for the Government to provide full details of the meeting to ensure there was no conflict of interest or a breach of the Ministerial Code.
He said: “To be sure there was no breach, the Government should offer up all call transcripts, emails and minutes to show that there is no conflict of interest. The question should also be, was there a civil servant present and if not, why not?”
Richard Hermer joined the Labour Government as Attorney General following the general election in July last year, after being appointed a life peer.
In previous years he represented Leigh Day in lawsuits brought against the government for alleged war crimes in Kenya, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The disclosure of the meeting will add to growing pressure on Hermer, who is facing criticism for his previous work representing a range of contentious clients, such as former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.
It has also been reported that Cabinet colleagues have become frustrated at Hermer, seeing him as a “blocker” to policy initiatives owing to his demands that all changes need to have the backing of solid legal advice.
Evidence of the meeting emerged from a departmental hospitality register seen by The i Paper which stated that Hermer had received a £50 dinner in the days running up to Christmas.
The Attorney General’s office has said the meal was recorded as hospitality in error and it was just a meeting between friends. They said there had been no discussion of any ongoing legal cases.
Before becoming Attorney General, Hermer represented Leigh Day in a successful civil claim case against the MoD in 2017, which awarded thousands of pounds in damages to a number of Iraqi civilians who claimed they were abused by British soldiers.
He also acted for Leigh Day representing Afghan civilians who claimed the SAS illegally killed family members during night raids in Helmand province in 2011 and 2012. These claims are now the subject of an independent public inquiry.
Labour MP Graham Stringer, who was a former junior minister under Tony Blair, said: “It seems to me completely inappropriate for any attorney general to have dinner with someone suing the government.”
A senior barrister and former Conservative justice minister, who for professional reasons declined to be named, told The i Paper: “It looks terrible.”
Leigh Day is currently bringing a class action against the MoD alleging that thousands of younger and unmarried military personnel were discriminated against after being charged higher rents for military housing than those aged over 37 or married – as the latter groups can claim an accommodation allowance. Leigh Day estimates the claim could cost taxpayers £50m.
The MoD is defending the claim, saying that “the Defence Secretary has made the provision of higher quality accommodation for service personnel a personal priority”.
The i Paper has learned that also present at the December dinner, along with Hermer and Martyn Day, was Professor Sir Simon Wessely, a leading psychiatrist at King’s College London.
Wessely, who established the King’s Centre for Military Health Research, was knighted for his services to military healthcare. He was an expert witness in the case Leigh Day brought against the MoD over alleged abuse by British soldiers in Iraq in 2004.
Wessely said the dinner was “a long postponed social meeting of friends.” On his previous work as an expert witness, he said he was there to “help the court, not the MoD or Leigh Day”, but that in the 2017 case he was instructed by the MoD.
A spokesperson for Martyn Day said: “This was a meeting between friends, and not work related.”
A spokesperson for the Attorney General said: “Law officers such as the Attorney General will 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.”
The Attorney General has been described as a “close friend” of the PrimeMinister, with the pair having worked together at Doughty StreetChambers prior to their time in politics.
As a human rights lawyer, Hermer represented a range of contentiouscharacters, including convicted Islamist terrorist Rangzieb Ahmed.
Former Labour lord chancellor Lord Falconer called him “a topintellect and top lawyer”, while Tony Blair’s former attorney general LordGoldsmith described him as a “proper lawyer”.
Before entering politics, Hermer had been an outspoken critic of Israeli conduct in Gaza, and supported the UK rejoining the EU – positions hehas now had to distance himself from as the UK’s most high-profilelawyer.
He has also faced criticism for supporting disgraced lawyerPhil Shiner after Shiner’s claims of war crimes by British soldiers wererejected by the High Court and he was put under investigation by theSolicitors Regulation Authority.
Hermer’s December dinner companion, Martyn Day, stood alongsideShiner at a press conference in 2008 when they detailed accusationsthat British troops had tortured and executed Iraqi civilians. A publicinquiry dismissed all the most serious allegations, which were found to have been based on deliberate lies. Shiner was struck off in 2017. Day was clearedof any wrongdoing.
Sources close to Hermer said he had the utmost respect for the ArmedForces and that once the case was proved against Shiner he hadcondemned his reprehensible behaviour.
In 2020 Hermer acted for human rights group Liberty, in support of“jihadi bride” Shamima Begum’s attempt to block the removal of hercitizenship. He had argued it was “draconian” to deprive the former ISIS member of her citizenship.
Hermer had also represented five Sri Lankan asylum seekers in 2023who were given a one-off deal to come to Britain from the Chagos Islandsshortly after Labour came to power.
Leigh Day sued the British government on behalf of 5,000 Kenyan nationals who were tortured by colonial officers during the 1950s Mau Mau uprising. The Foreign Office agreed to a £19.9m settlement.
Leigh Day was involved in pursuing a case against British soldiers who were accused of murdering and torturing Iraqi civilians. A public inquiry found no evidence to support the most serious of claims that were based on lies. The law firm was successful in a civil case it took on behalf of a number of Iraqis against the MoD in 2017 for ill-treatment by British Armed Forces.
In a podcast in 2020, Lord Hermer revealed he had provided advice in conjunction with Leigh Day on a case from Caribbean countries in favour of reparations to be paid by the British Government around 2014.
Hermer was listed by Leigh Day as representing Afghans who claimed family members had been murdered by British Special Forces in Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012. The firm alleged that UK forces participated in extrajudicial killings and the cover up of these deaths. The claims are now the subject of an independent statutory inquiry.
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