As if the Attorney General hadn’t proven his ability for conjuring up negative headlines enough, Lord Hermer took it upon himself on Thursday to compare political threats to leave the ECHR to the Nazis. Speaking to the Royal Institute for International Affairs (RUSI) defence think tank, Hermer earnestly told his audience: ‘The claim that international law is fine as far as it goes, but can be put aside when conditions change, is a claim that was made in the early 1930s by “realist” jurists in Germany.’ But today, after a momentous backlash, Hermer has finally apologised for his, er, ‘clumsy’ language. You can say that again!
Now Hermer’s spokesperson has issued a short statement on the Attorney General’s comments, noting brusquely that:
He rejects the characterisation of his speech by the Conservatives. He acknowledges though that his choice of words was clumsy and regrets having used this reference.
It’s hardly a full-throated apology, eh?
The row-back comes after the Conservatives and Reform UK politicians alike slammed his remarks – with Nigel Farage fuming that the comments were ‘disgraceful’ while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s spokesperson noted that ‘it was ironic’ that Lord Hermer had said he hoped to depolarise the debate and ‘simultaneously called everyone he disagreed with Nazis’.
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