Britain’s top lawyers have written to
Priti Patel to express their concern after a knifeman threatened to kill an immigration solicitor last month in an attack colleagues say was directly motivated by comments made by the home secretary.
On 7 September a man with a large knife entered a London law firm and launched a “violent, racist attack” that injured a staff member before the assailant was overwhelmed.
A confederate flag and far-right literature were allegedly found in a bag he was carrying. According to documents about the incident, police described the knife as a “weapon designed to cause serious harm”.
Days before, on 3 September, Patel dismayed the legal profession by claiming “
activist lawyers” were frustrating the removal of migrants.
Patel appears not only to have ignored its concerns but doubled down on her attacks against immigration lawyers.
Last Sunday, almost a month after the knife attack, Patel used her speech at the Conservative party conference to
target “do-gooders” and “lefty lawyers,” claiming those who represented asylum seekers were “defending the indefensible”.
Two days later, in his keynote speech, Boris Johnson
went even further, claiming the entire criminal justice system was “being hamstrung by lefty human rights lawyers”. It remains unclear to what extent, if any, the PM was aware of the knife attack.
