Labour ministers are scrapping guidance on how government departments consider human rights legal advice, after changes introduced during Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership are reversed. The Daily Mail reports that Ellie Reeves, a Labour figure described as the responsible minister, removes changes made by her predecessor linked to Lord Hermer.
The outlet frames the guidance as “risk-averse” and says critics viewed the arrangement as giving human rights lawyers, through Hermer, an effective veto over government policy. In response to that criticism, Reeves bins the revisions that had been put in place.
While the report emphasizes political accountability and the impact on decision-making, it also indicates the specific action taken: the guidance is being withdrawn and replaced, rather than defended as necessary. The account does not set out the precise operational details of the guidance or any alternative framework, but it situates the change within Labour’s internal policy process and its management of legal risk.
