President Simon Davis:
“The fact that a lawyer represents an asylum seeker does not make them a ‘lefty lawyer’. It simply makes them a lawyer. Attacks on members of the legal profession for doing their jobs do our country no credit. Slinging insults at lawyers undermines rule of law in an area where views are already hotly held on all sides & risks leading not just to verbal abuse but to lawyers being physically attacked for doing their job”.
We have written to the Home Office asking them to change the language they are using https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/oct/06/home-secretarys-dangerous-rhetoric-putting-lawyers-at-risk
In response to one comment the Law Society went on:
We are the membership organisation for solicitors, not a trade union and the Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulator for the profession. 53% of asylum applications are granted on initial application, rising to 73% when appeals are taken into account. The Law Society has long called for improvements to the UK asylum and immigration system, which is beset with delays and poor decision-making.
Apart from a single comment every other contributor damned the government and specifically Priti Patel for her hostility and lack of understanding.
A representative from Deutsche Bank no less stated:
‘I am really pleased to see Simon Davis and the Law Society taking this robust and wholly merited stance. Attacking the legal profession in this manner is straight out of the playbook of governing a fascist state or banana republic.’
And a director of Zero Carbon Futures and a CBE stated:
‘I am not in the legal profession but I also heard the words used and I agree they are not acceptable. If we want to stand alone stop copying the Trump administration.’
The warnings have been there for a while:
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