The new lord chancellor, David Lidington (pictured), was sworn in on 19 June. Lidington was leader of the House of Commons before being appointed lord chancellor and prior to that had been minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) from May 2010 to July 2016. In his speech, after the swearing-in ceremony, he drew on his ministerial experience at the FCO, stating that: ‘As Europe minister, one of my key priorities was to promote the protection of human rights and help uphold the rule of law in countries across Europe, especially perhaps in those European nations that had seen those traditions crushed.’

His predecessor, Liz Truss, was widely criticised for not being prompt enough to defend the judiciary in the aftermath of the article 50 case last year, which had led to judges being lambasted by some pro-Brexit sections of the media (the Daily Mail notoriously branded judges as ‘enemies of the people’ after the High Court ruled on the case in November, a headline that reportedly sparked over 1,000 complaints to press regulator IPSO). In a key passage of his speech, Lidington pledged his determination to be ‘resolute and unflinching as lord chancellor in upholding the rule of law and defending the independence of the judiciary’.

Meanwhile, Dominic Raab has replaced Sir Oliver Heald QC as minister of state, the second-ranking post at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). Among his responsibilities will be the legal aid brief. Raab is a solicitor who worked at the large City law firm Linklaters. He had previously been a junior minister with responsibility for human rights at the MoJ from 2015 to 2016.