'Judges aren't free from criticism': Backlash after England's top judge attacks Starmer's migrant remarks

18 February 2025, 12:00 | Updated: 18 February 2025, 14:41

The most senior judge in England and Wales has sparked a backlash by launching into a rare attack on Sir Keir Starmer over migrant remarks he made in the Commons.

During PMQs last week, Sir Keir said a decision allowing a Palestinian family the right to remain in the UK after they applied through a scheme designed for Ukrainian refugees was "wrong" and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had got her team "working on closing this loophole".

His comments drew criticism from The Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Sue Carr who said “it is for the Government visibly to respect and protect the independence of the judiciary.”

But her comments have triggered a major row, with the Policy Exchange Think Tank saying she is “wrong in her attempts to ‘suppress criticism.”

Richard Ekins KC, head of the Policy Exchange think tank’s Judicial Power Project, said: “This is a very ill-advised intervention by the Lady Chief Justice.

“There was nothing constitutionally improper in the recent exchange by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

“Parliamentarians, including ministers, are free to disagree with judgments and to say as much.

“Neither judicial independence nor the rule of law entitle judges to be free from criticism and the Lady Chief Justice is wrong to attempt to suppress criticism.”

The family, who have been granted anonymity, had an appeal against the decision dismissed by a first-tier immigration tribunal judge in September but a further appeal was allowed by upper tribunal judges in January.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch raised the case, describing the tribunal decision as "completely wrong".

The Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Sue Carr, said on Tuesday that she was "deeply troubled to learn of the exchanges" between Sir Keir and Mrs Badenoch.

She told reporters: "I think it started from a question from the Opposition suggesting that the decision in a certain case was wrong, and obviously the Prime Minister's response to that.

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"Both question and the answer were unacceptable.

"It is for the Government visibly to respect and protect the independence of the judiciary.

"Where parties, including the Government, disagree with their findings, they should do so through the appellate process."

Baroness Sue Carr said she has also written to the Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, who is also Justice Secretary.

Responding to Baroness Sue Carr's comments, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said politicians are "perfectly entitled to comment on decisions by judges".

He added: "This is especially the case with human rights-based cases, where judges have adopted increasingly bizarre and expansive interpretations of vaguely worded ECHR clauses."

The family of six at the heart of the case brought up in the Commons - comprising a mother and father and their four children who were aged 18, 17, eight and seven in September - were displaced when their home in the Gaza Strip was destroyed by an air strike in the Israel-Hamas war.

They applied for entry to the UK using the Ukraine Family Scheme to join the father's brother, who has lived in the UK since 2007 and is a British citizen, but this was refused in May last year after the Home Office concluded the requirements of the scheme had not been met.

Responding to Mrs Badenoch's question, Sir Keir said: "I do not agree with the decision. She's right, it's the wrong decision. She hasn't quite done her homework, because the decision in question was taken under the last government according to the legal framework for the last government.

"But let me be clear, it should be Parliament that makes the rules on immigration. It should be the Government that makes the policy, that is the principle, and the Home Secretary is already looking at the legal loophole which we need to close in this particular case."