Deportations row: Lord Chief Justice regrets lawyers' support for 'abusive late challenges'

The head of the judiciary has weighed into the Government's row with "lefty activist lawyers" by expressing regret at the "minority" who support what he called "abusive late legal challenges".

The intervention by Lord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice, was welcomed by Government sources, although it came in a judgment in which he ruled a major plank of the UK's strategy for removing failed migrants illegal.

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, and Boris Johnson have been embroiled in an increasingly acrimonious war with the legal profession over legal challenges that have thwarted attempts to deport Channel migrants.

Earlier this week, more than 800 former judges and legal figures signed a letter calling on Ms Patel and the Prime Minister to apologise for their "hostility" toward the profession.

The two politicians have been critical of lawyers who seek to frustrate Government policy, describing them as "activists" and "lefties". 

The letter, published in The Guardian, said: "Such attacks endanger not only the personal safety of lawyers and others working for the justice system, as has recently been vividly seen; they undermine the rule of law, which ministers and lawyers alike are duty-bound to uphold."

Lord Burnett's comments centred on one of the key concerns by the Home Office, which is the late challenges to its attempts to deport migrants, including those who have crossed the Channel. It has led to flights to other EU countries being halted at the last minute.

The comments came in a Court of Appeal judgement in which Lord Burnett and two other judges ruled that the Government's judicial review and injunctions policy for migrants risked removing people from the UK even if they had a right to be in the country. The policy has been used in 40,000 removal cases.

Campaigners who brought the challenge said the Home Office had endangered lives by short-cutting the law.

But in his judgment the Lord Chief Justice said: "Any system of removing irregular migrants must operate in the sure knowledge that some are reluctant to leave the UK, even when there is no basis for remaining here, and will take whatever steps are permitted by the legal and administrative arrangements in place to resist, delay or frustrate removal.

"Late claims raised shortly before the known date of removal have been endemic, many fanciful or entirely false. Whilst there is no suggestion of any such conduct in these proceedings, it is a matter of regret that a minority of lawyers have lent their professional weight and support to vexatious representations and abusive late legal challenges.

"The courts have developed controls which provide some protection for its own processes and for the proper functioning of immigration control… but the practical and administrative problems for the Home Office in dealing at speed with substantial new representations in the days and hours leading up to a removal are legion."

Responding to the letter, Number 10 said: "Lawyers play an important role in upholding the law and ensuring people have access to justice. They are, however, not immune from criticism."

On Tuesday, a source close to Ms Patel was quoted as saying: "Are left-wing lawyers above reproach and to be free of all criticism? It is truly ridiculous."

The letter's signatories included former Supreme Court and High Court judges and more than 80 QCs. In August, the Home Office had to scrap a video that accused "activist lawyers" of undermining asylum laws.