The judiciary has come in for a hard time following the Supreme Court’s decision that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament was unlawful. But Lady Hale and her ten fellow justices found a staunch defender at Tory party conference this evening in the form of Robert Buckland.
The Lord Chancellor hit out at critics who said their decision was politically motivated. And he told those gathered at the fringe event to ignore anonymous briefings from ‘unaccountable’ people:
It’s been quite a few weeks as a member of Cabinet, but I can tell you as well that our judiciary is in good heart, too, because whatever one thinks about the merits of decisions that are made, one iron rule has to apply: We have an independent judiciary. We have respect for the rule of law. And that is what your Lord Chancellor will do, time and time again without worrying about the politics of it, without worrying about what No.10 might say. My word is the law, not some unaccountable person who might be saying something off the record. What I say, what the Prime Minister say, matters far more than anything else.
Whoever could Buckland have in mind?
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