Sir Keir Starmer QC today declined to express unqualified support for striking barristers, while insisting he backs their right to take action over pay.
The Labour leader was put on the spot by barrister and TV personality Robert Rinder on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. Rinder asked if Starmer supports strikes by lawyers who ‘can’t afford to represent their clients, or represent victims’.
Starmer replied: ‘I understand their concerns. I absolutely support the right to strike. The point I have been making throughout the summer on this is, I want the Labour Party to be in government not opposition. And the most significant thing we can do for everybody who’s struggling to make ends meet, whether they’re on strike or not, is to have a Labour government.
‘And if you’re in government, your job is to resolve issues, to get around the table whether it’s rail strikes, or any other strikes, and you can’t be in government, around the cabinet table, and then go a a picket line…Any responsible government has a role in negotiations. I support the right to strike.’
Rinder responded: ‘That wasn’t the question Sir Keir…I take that as a ‘yes, no, maybe’.
The Criminal Bar Association is currently balloting members on whether to maintain their current action – alternating weeks of strike action combined with a refusal to accept new instructions and ‘returned’ cases – or escalate it to ‘uninterrupted’ strikes. A full-blown strike could begin on 5 September.
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