Overview

• In a BBC interview on June 27, the attorney general affirmed that the UK has a single, independent justice system and condemned two-tier justice claims as “disgusting.”
• Opposition figures led by Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick cite Lucy Connolly’s 31-month sentence to argue that rioters receive harsher punishments than other protesters.
• Hermer defended his record as a human rights barrister, rejecting demands for his dismissal over past clients including Gerry Adams and Shamima Begum.
• Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood blocked Sentencing Council guidance meant to offer leniency to ethnic, religious and gender minorities, warning it would create differential treatment under the law.
• The debate over sentencing fairness and judicial impartiality, rooted in last summer’s Southport riots, has intensified scrutiny of the attorney general’s role in upholding both domestic and international legal standards.