Qualified solicitor Dominic Raab MP was today named as justice secretary following the dismissal of Robert Buckland MP QC in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle. Buckland had held the role since July 2019 and faced controversies over constitutional reform and delays in the justice system. 

Robert Buckland QC MP

Buckland became an early casualty of Johnson’s reshuffle

Source: Michael Cross

Raab was also named deputy prime minister. He will be the eighth lord chancellor since the Conservatives came in to government in 2010. The Ministry of Justice said that no date had been set for his swearing in. 

Raab, admitted in 2000, began his career at magic circle firm Linklaters, where he worked on project finance, international litigation and competition law.

He also spent time on secondments at human rights organisation Liberty and in Brussels advising on EU and world trade law. He served as a justice minister in the Cameron and May governments.

Buckland had sought to build bridges with the legal profession despite fierce controversies over government plans to curb judicial review and to review the Human Rights Act. In a speech to the Law Society this year Buckland said: ‘I regard myself as a constitutional plumber. This is not a revolution. It is routine maintenance,’ he said. 

Dominic Raab

Raab began his career at magic circle firm Linklaters

Source: Jeff Gilbert/Shutterstock

In July, Buckland told a dinner for Her Majesty’s judges that his second anniversary in the job would be ‘relatively rare for a modern lord chancellor’. 

Buckland, MP for Swindon South, was called to the bar in 1991. He practised in criminal and planning law. He took silk when he joined David Cameron’s government  as solicitor general in 2014. He was appointed lord chancellor and justice secretary on 24 July 2019.

His Conservative colleague Sir Bob Neill, chair of the Justice Select Committee, tweeted today: 

'I would also like to thank Robert Buckland QC for his service to the justice system during an extremely challenging time,' she added.

 

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