Tony Vaughan

Tony Vaughan

Labour — Folkestone and Hythe

Speaking in the House of Commons on 23 January 2025

Debate

Attorney General’s Office: Conflicts of Interest

Contribution

I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as a member of the Bar. It seems that Conservative Members are deliberately feigning ignorance about our constitution to make an empty political point. The truth is that lawyers in this country represent clients without fear or favour. We do not in this country associate the views of our clients or the clients with the views of their lawyers, and there is the concept of the cab rank rule. Does the Solicitor General agree with me that the Law Officers’ convention and existing processes, which, as she says, have been in place for many years under successive Governments, can be left to regulate conflicts of interest, as they always have done? If the Conservatives genuinely had a problem with that, they would have changed it when they were in government.

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