Attorney general says populism poses ‘one of the most profound challenges of our age’

The attorney general has described the threat posed by populism as “one of the most profound challenges of our age”.

Under question at the justice select committee on Wednesday morning, Lord Hermer reflected on the importance of the rule of law and argued that the government must “explain” its importance “more than ever before”.

The attorney general, who heads of the UK Government Legal Department and acts as chief legal adviser to the government, was drawn on a recent speech he delivered, titled “The Rule of Law in an Age of Populism”.

He was asked how upholding the rule of law can responded to the risk to democracy posed by populism and misinformation.

Lord Hermer said: “The question raised is one of the kind of most profound challenges of our age, and I’m not going to be able to give you in the space of a kind of two minute answer, the full panoply of measures that governments here and allies across the world are going to need to be thinking about.

“But to return to what I said before, it’s not enough for us as a government to be simply applying the rule of law to the decisions that we make, although, of course, that is essential that we do so.

“There is, I think, an important moment for governments to be out explaining the importance of the rule of law to everyone in language that we all understand. And again, I really want to stress that is not a political motivation.”

He added: “There was a study that was published yesterday by a communications consultancy, FGS [Global], and they had a number of findings…

“24 per cent of the UK electorate, according to this poll, believe that voting doesn’t make a difference. And more than one in five people under the age of 45 agree with the statement that the best system for running a country effectively is a strong leader who doesn’t bother with elections.

“Now, that is a rule of law challenge for all of us.”

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