Lord Hermer served as lead counsel in civil claims against the Ministry of Defence, pressing for substantial payouts for eight Iraqi clients, according to legal documents. He worked on a no-win, no-fee basis and stood to gain significantly if the claims succeeded. The compensation case arose from claims by Iraqis who alleged British forces had tortured and executed civilians following the Battle of Danny Boy in southern Iraq in 2004.
The £31 million Al-Sweady public inquiry found the accusations amounted to 'deliberate lies' driven by 'ingrained hostility' towards the British Army. The claimants were subsequently identified as members of the Mahdi Army, an Islamist insurgent group backed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. British troops were fully exonerated in 2014.
I have gone through hell for years. It's disgusting that Hermer is Attorney General. He pursued us in a witch hunt and yet is now the senior lawyer in Government. That is just wrong – he was representing the people trying to kill us.
Solicitor Phil Shiner, who collaborated with Lord Hermer on the case, was removed from the legal register and subsequently convicted of fraud. Lance Corporal Brian Wood, a Military Cross recipient, was falsely accused of war crimes by Lord Hermer's clients. Hilary Meredith, who represented soldiers wrongly accused over the Danny Boy incident, called on the Bar Standards Board to investigate Lord Hermer's conduct.
' It remains unclear what specific warnings Lord Hermer received about the allegations being invented or the current status of the Bar Standards Board investigation. The amount of compensation sought for his Iraqi clients has not been disclosed, and Lord Hermer's response to the allegations is unknown.
The worst case ever of soldiers, who had fought so bravely in that battle, being dragged through the mud for years.
Tantamount to treason.