In depth: Labour in Liverpool - fine words, few promises

‘The rule of law is back,’ declared a succession of Labour’s justice team members as they sought to draw clear dividing lines between the new government and its predecessor.

It was a mantra repeated again and again – and spoke to two messages coming out of the Labour party conference in Liverpool this week.

One was to give the impression that this is a new team that can be trusted to defend justice in the face of attacks from the populist right. Attorney general Richard Hermer, speaking at a fringe meeting on Sunday, was so passionate about this point that he stood up to make it. ‘We need to explain in language everyone will understand why the rule of law matters,’ he said. ‘We have to popularise the rule of law and human rights. We need to be militant in our belief in the rule of law and human rights. We should be shouting it from the rooftops.’

Lord chancellor Shabana Mahmood told the same event: ‘The other lot saw justice as expendable, as a department and a set of services that could be cut and nobody would notice. That is not the position of the Labour party, not our values and not who we are as a political party. We will do things differently. We signalled almost immediately upon our entry into government that the rule of law was back and the government doesn’t get to trash the law – that is a statement of intent and you can take confidence from that.’

No doubt these were sincere sentiments, but cynics might suggest that Labour wants us to know it believes in lofty concepts because it had little to offer in terms of policies. This was the second message.

'We need to explain in language everyone will understand why the rule of law matters. We have to popularise the rule of law and human rights. We need to be militant in our belief in the rule of law and human rights'

Attorney general Richard Hermer

In her conference speech, Mahmood made two announcements: legal advocates for all rape complainants and a plan to cut the number of women in prison.

Both were popular with the sparse audience – Mahmood was given the graveyard shift immediately after the leader’s speech – but the legal profession will have noted that she did not mention legal aid, the courts backlog, the crumbling court estate or even lawyers themselves. One wonders what the reaction would be if a health secretary failed to include a platitude for doctors and nurses.

Fringe events – usually a petri dish for potential policy ideas – only served to highlight the dearth of new policies. Invited to talk about family courts, justice minister Lord Ponsonby offered only an extension of existing schemes – expansion of pathfinder courts for dealing with domestic abuse and mediation vouchers to reduce the burden on courts. Ponsonby said money had been allocated for both and he was quick to thank his Conservative predecessor Lord Bellamy for getting them off the ground.

These schemes were fully costed, he said, but the funding of other changes to the justice system is very much open to question. Mahmood insisted that Labour is not a party of austerity but admitted she expects ‘difficult’ questions from the Treasury in the coming weeks. The near-catastrophic prison crisis over the summer is likely to have already eaten into potential funding. It was a theme throughout the week: Labour has identified the problems, but does not have the money to deal with many of them.

Conference attendees took heart from Hermer’s close relationship with Sir Keir Starmer, and of course the prime minister’s legal background. But the Treasury may continue to see justice as an unprotected department that could shoulder more cuts.

Mahmood agreed with one audience member that the ultimate issue was money, but added: ‘You would not expect me ahead of a budget and spending review to go much further than to signal I know exactly where you are coming from.’

At another fringe event, justice minister Heidi Alexander said the legal aid sector is on ‘life support’ and that her department’s top priority after the prisons crisis is to restore it to better health.

‘You have my commitment to work with the profession to find a system and way forward so everyone can find the access to justice they need,’ she added.

Commitments to the rule of law and to restoring access to justice will be music to the ears of a legal profession that has felt politically marginalised over the past decade. But warm words are no substitute for hard cash, and lawyers will want to see more substantive change if they are to believe the new administration really is a departure from its predecessor.

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