As a veteran of British politics, justice secretary Kenneth Clarke is used to having his picture in the papers, but last week his face appeared more often than usual.

Supporters of the Law Society’s Sound Off For Justice campaign held a ‘let them eat cake’ tea party on College Green, Westminster, just before the second reading of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill - or the Injustice Bill, as some have dubbed it.

They donned Clarke face masks as they ate cup cakes decorated by a picture of the justice secretary with a Marie Antoinette-style wig superimposed on his head, and bearing her infamous catchphrase.

In something of a publicity coup, pictures of the Clarke-alikes were published on the websites of most national papers.

The man himself did not attend the party, but ahead of his 71st birthday on 2 July, the campaigners kindly had a celebratory cake delivered to his offices.

The offering was adorned with the words of the Magna Carta as a gentle reminder of a speech he made last November, in which he said: ‘We should think very carefully before abandoning the principles that those people who signed the Magna Carta never knew they were inventing for ordinary people like you and me.’

Yet, as the campaigners point out, seven months later Clarke is rushing a bill through parliament that is set to tear up founding principles of the justice system.

There’s something for the lord chancellor to chew on.