In the first of three election countdown articles, Jon Robins reviews the Labour Party manifesto's commitments to justice
It has been said that Jeremy Corbyn, doughty champion of any number of unfashionable causes, ‘gets’ legal aid. At the end of 2015, when the then new Labour leader launched a comprehensive review of access to justice, the MP spoke of his grandfather, a solicitor in Ealing, who would act as a ‘poor man’s lawyer’ representing people charged with begging free of charge.
The Islington North MP also damned as ‘utter nonsense’ the media myth of ‘fat cat lawyers raking it in through legal aid’ and dismissed Michael Gove’s wheeze of pro bono by City firms providing a substitute for a proper publicly funded system of legal advice. ‘Pro bono, charity and food banks are not the solution to inequality,’ Corbyn said. ‘If we want a rights-based society with equal access to justice, we have to pay for it.’
Tub-thumping rhetoric
In that spirit, Labour’s 43-page draft manifesto, as leaked last week, didn’t disappoint. It had the
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