THE most senior judge in England and Wales said she has written to Sir Keir Starmer over last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, telling reporters she was “deeply troubled”.
During Prime Minister’s Questions last week, Starmer 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”.
The family, who have been granted anonymity, had an appeal against the decision dismissed by a first-tier immigration tribunal judge in September and 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 Carr said on Tuesday that she was “deeply troubled to learn of the exchanges” between Starmer and Badenoch.
Baroness Carr told reporters: “I think it started from a question from the opposition suggesting that the decision in a certain case and was wrong and obviously the Prime Minister’s response to that.
“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.”
The Lady Chief Justice said judicial security had been an issue ever since she took up office, and it is a matter that came to a very “dramatic and concerning head” with the attack on Judge Patrick Perusko, during which a radiator was thrown at him at Milton Keynes Family Court at the end of 2023.
Baroness Carr added that it was an “incredibly serious attack”, but that “the silver lining of the very dark cloud” was it made everyone sit up and make sure that as much as possible is being done to “preserve the safety of judges in courts and tribunals”.
She also said that she has been looking at Canada, where they have a dedicated police unit devoted to judicial security, adding: “I think that we are, at the moment, potentially behind the curve.”
Baroness Carr continued that sometimes judges are subject to “devastating social media attacks”, and they can either disengage completely – which potentially means credible threats are missed, or engage, in which case they may be “traumatised” by reading this absolutely horrendous material.
Badenoch hit back at the criticism and said: “Parliament is sovereign. Politicians must be able to discuss matters of crucial public importance in Parliament.
“This doesn’t compromise the independence of the judiciary. The decision to allow a family from Gaza to come to the UK was outrageous for many reasons.
“The Prime Minister couldn’t even tell me whether the Government would appeal the decision. He pretended he was looking at closing a legal ‘loophole’.
“This is not just some legal loophole that can be closed, but requires a fundamental overhaul of our flawed human rights laws.”
A family of six seeking to flee Gaza were allowed to join their brother in Britain following an immigration judge ruling that the Home Office’s rejection of their application breached their human rights.
The family used the Ukraine Family Scheme in January 2024 on the basis that it best fitted their circumstances. The scheme allowed Ukrainians to come to the UK if they had a relative who was a British citizen or settled in the UK and closed in February 2024.
