Starmer and Badenoch trade blows over their senior legal spokesmenpublished at 13:35 GMT
13:35 GMT
Image source, PA Media
Earlier during PMQs, Starmer and Badenoch clashed over Conservative shadow attorney general Lord Wolfson, who is acting as a lawyer for sanctioned Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in a lawsuit over his assets frozen in Jersey.
The former owner of Chelsea football club, who has ties to Vladimir Putin, was sanctioned by the UK government in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, triggering his sale of the Premier League club.
Starmer questioned how the Conservatives can support sanctions in support of Ukraine when a shadow cabinet member is “advising someone on how to escape sanctions”.
In response, Badenoch pointed to Lord Wolfson also acting for British military veterans, which she says he has done free of charge, before pointing the figure at his opposite number, the Attorney General Lord Hermer, over his previous high-profile and controversial clients.
She says Lord Hermer defended former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and Shamima Begum, who married a member of the so-called Islamic State group as a teenager. She also said he is “helping to surrender the Chagos Islands”.
In response, Starmer said it was the reality of the legal system that lawyers have to represent “all sorts of clients”, but said the difference between the government and opposition was that “we want money from Chelsea football club to go to Ukraine”.