Politicians in this election are failing to address the severe problems caused by deep cuts to the legal system, one former senior judge has warned, while another has called for a mass walkout by lawyers if the Conservatives are returned to power.

Addressing a protest rally by legal aid lawyers in central London, Sir Alan Moses said the lack of access to justice was being ignored.

Moses, who was previously an appeal court judge, said: “No one seems to care about the plight of those who have neither the ability to protect themselves in a legal sense and cannot afford a lawyer.

“That [people] are deprived of the chance of legal aid seems to figure at the very bottom of concern in this election.

“No one thinks they are ever going to be faced with circumstances that require someone to hold their hand and safeguard them in the frightening and alienating circumstances of a court of law.

“Who cares about the prisoner whose rights are abused and needs legal advice and assistance? Who cares about the immigrant who asserts they are a genuine refugee? Those who cannot afford access to the courts are often the unpopular minorities and there are no votes in helping them.”

Moses, who is now the chairman of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), added: “Who cares if the high street lawyers who beaver away for little reward are closed down? … depriving people who need help degrades our system and degrades us all.”

None of the main political parties, other than the Greens, have pledged in their manifestos to reverse the estimated £700m legal aid cuts imposed on the justice system by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.

Another former appeal court judge urged a mass walkout by lawyers in protest at the cuts if the Conservatives are returned to power.



Sir Anthony Hooper supported the rally and endorsed the suggestion that lawyers should not vote for the Conservatives or Liberal Democrats in the existing coalition who had been responsible for legal aid cuts.

If the Conservatives come back into power, it’s revolution time Former judge Sir Anthony Hooper

“I’m completely depressed,” he said. “I started out in the legal profession 30-odd years ago when we had as Rolls-Royce a system as you possibly could have.

“This has been destroyed gradually and then quickly over the past few years. Whatever we have said it’s not made any difference at all.

“If the Conservatives come back into power, it’s revolution time. We have to stop helping them and stop working.

“The Bar Council are not going to do anything. The Law Society is not going to do anything. The judges are not going to do anything.

“Unless you [lawyers] are prepared to withdraw your labour you have no hope. If the Tories get back in, they haven’t even started on us.”

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said there were too few lawyers in parliament to understand the significance of cuts to legal aid and “too many machine politicians”.



She told the Vote for Justice rally: “So many of our great politicians are wrapping themselves in Magna Carta celebrations while destroying legal aid in this country.

“I believe it’s not just carelessness or complacency. I believe it’s ideological. These same politicians want to drink champagne at Magna Carta celebrations … are the ones who want to scrap legal aid and pull out of the Human Rights Act.”

Criminal aid solicitors are facing a further 8.75% reduction under a new two-tier contract for representing defendants in police stations and magistrates courts.

The deadline for bidding for the new contracts, which will force mass consolidation of the profession, is 5 May – two days before the election. Labour has promised to scrap the new system if it is elected.

Bill Waddington, the chairman of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said the reforms would result in “more than 1,000 solicitors firms going out of business”.

The sustained fall in the crime rate has meant that law and order issues have barely surfaced in this election – a significant difference to previous campaigns.

Speaking to the Guardian outside the rally in Central Hall, Westminster, Sir Alan Moses said he was sorry that other judges felt inhibited and had not spoken out about the effect of cuts to the legal system.

He said: “It’s a great disappointment that they have been brought up in a tradition of protecting their independence and not commenting on these things.

“They always say they can do something by speaking in the background but we never know what’s been said.

“I’m confident that the judges are very concerned about cuts to legal aid – and that it’s very inefficient.”

Departments that are not ringfenced, such as the Ministry of Justice, will suffer further severe cuts after the election, he added. “I would love someone to say we cannot afford any more money for the NHS … you will never have enough money for medical provision”.