Focusing on comments made by Jenrick and Philp, Walney told the Guardian: “It is deeply unfair when politicians – and newspapers – suggest that judges are pursuing an ideological agenda when they are in fact doing precisely what the law demands of them in implementing human rights law even when it protects criminals we would like to throw out of the country.
Lord Walney, who until last week was the Conservative-appointed watchdog on political violence, said the senior Tories are “deeply wrong” for indicating that judges are ideologically driven when enforcing the law.
It follows an intervention by the lady chief justice, Sue Carr, who said this week she was “deeply troubled” by comments made by Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch about a named immigration judge who allowed Palestinian refugees to come to the UK from Gaza.
Walney, whose position was axed by the government last week, wrote to the lord chancellor Shabana Mahmood and Lady Carr to express his concerns about the intimidation of judges as one of his last acts in the role.
Last week, Philp wrote on Twitter that “judges have twisted the meaning of ECHR [European convention on human rights] Articles to protect paedophiles instead of children” after a Zimbabwean offender was allowed to stay in the UK because he faced “substantial hostility” if sent to his home country.
