Magistrate sacked for public campaigning over Covid response

A magistrate has been removed from office for using her judicial platform to campaign against the government’s Covid-19 policies.

The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said that Kaira McCallum had been found to have ‘associated herself publicly with activity in relation to the government’s response to the Covid pandemic’.

McCallum, who sat on cases at Westminster Magistrates Court, was also found to have aggravated her conduct by referring publicly to her judicial status.

A spokesperson for the JCIO said the lord chancellor and lord chief justice found that McCallum’s conduct amounted to a ‘serious breach’ of important guidance on judicial impartiality and of guidance issued to magistrates about use of the suffix ‘JP’.

She was also found to have sent a ‘highly inappropriate’ email to a senior manager in HM Courts & Tribunal Services, who had issued information to staff and judiciary about Covid safety measures.

The spokesperson added: ‘In deciding to remove Miss McCallum from office, the lord chancellor and lord chief justice agreed with the finding of a disciplinary panel that, due to the nature of her conduct, allowing her to remain in office would risk damage to the reputation of the judiciary. They also took into account that Miss McCallum had failed to acknowledge her actions were in any way improper for a judicial office-holder.’

McCallum is listed online as a member of the UK Medical Freedom Alliance, holding itself out as a group of healthcare professionals, scientists and lawyers campaigning for informed consent and medical choice.

She was one of the signatories to a claim made to the International Criminal Court in 2021 relating to the government’s handling of the pandemic and its promotion of the Covid vaccines.