‘The attorney general must step in and send a formal warning to Farage that contempt of court will not be tolerated.’
Former ministers have warned that Conservative and Reform UK politicians are fuelling “hysteria and anger” over immigration in a way that could bring court trials to a halt.
At a Reform press conference on Monday, a Reform council leader said that there had been a “cover-up” in a rape case and referred to a man who has not been convicted and is awaiting trial as “the criminal”.
The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has now bowed to the pressure of Reform and right-wing opinion, and asked for a change in official guidance should change to permit police to release the ethnicity or immigration status of criminal suspects.
Dominic Grieve, a former Conservative Attorney General, told the Guardian he was concerned about the “fuelling of hysteria by politicians”. He also said some politicians were breaking the law by commenting on future trials.
He said certain politicians “seem to have thrown the rulebook in the bonfire”.
Neil Basu, the former head of counter-terrorism policing, said that Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick’s comments risked inciting violence and said they were “appealing to the worst kind of populist sentiment”.
Asked if this kind of language risks a repeat of the riots last summer, Basu said: “Yes … they should be very careful about the language they use. It is capable, demonstrably, of causing violence.”
Speaking to the Guardian, the Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, said the attorney general, Richard Hermer, should issue a formal warning to Farage about Reform’s comments on live criminal cases.
Davey said: “Farage and the Conservatives are … openly trying to tear down our justice system, just as the Maga movement has done in the US”.
He added: “Irresponsible comments like these put prosecutions at risk and could let dangerous criminals walk free. The attorney general must step in and send a formal warning to Farage that contempt of court will not be tolerated.”
Rights groups including Amnesty International have warned against disclosing suspects’ ethnicities, accusing the government of “choosing to pour fuel on the fire of dangerous narratives, instead of taking action to address racism and hostility”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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