Dame Emily Thornberry had been shadowing Sir Keir Starmer for the previous three years and was waiting by the phone to be named Attorney General when he selected his first Cabinet.Rather, Sir Keir appointed Richard Hermer KC, a friend who won a peerage to gain entry into Parliament and serve as his chief legal adviser, a man with no political experience. The 56-year-old Lord Hermer, who contributed £5,000 to Sir Keir's 2020 Labour leadership campaign, had the benefit of being a practicing lawyer with over 30 years of expertise, as opposed to a politician whose legal career was in the past.Sir Keir, it was said, trusted him to give unbiased opinions rather than trying to please him with favourable interpretations of the law. But that long career in human rights law also meant Lord Hermer had accumulated a collection of clients and cases that would not always sit comfortably with his role as a Cabinet minister.As we know, they included Gerry Adams, the former Sinn Fein president, whom Lord Hermer represented when he was sued by victims of IRA bombings.

Mr Adams is now in line for taxpayer-funded compensation after Sir Keir decided to repeal a law that blocked him from claiming damages for internment in the 1970s.Lord Hermer was acting for Mr Adams in a private case in 2023, which was unrelated to Sir Keir’s decision to change the law, and Downing Street has refused to say whether he was involved in discussions about the law change.

But his presence in government has been keenly felt ever since he was parachuted into the job. In accepting the role of Attorney General, he became the first person since 1922 to take on the job without ever serving in Parliament.

He was soon pressed into action following the riots sparked by the stabbing of three girls in Southport last July.

It was he who advised Sir Keir that it would be lawful to charge social media users with stirring up racial hatred online, which led to controversial prison sentences. He later said people could not “hide behind a keyboard” and would find themselves in a cell if they incited racial and religious hatred online.

There was further controversy when Taylor Swift was given a police escort through London to reach Wembley for her Eras Tour, which was initially turned down by the Metropolitan Police before Lord Hermer reportedly intervened and said it would be lawful for the Met to provide the escort.

Several Labour front benchers – not including Lord Hermer – and Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, received free tickets to the concerts.

But it is Lord Hermer’s involvement in decisions about foreign policy that have the most far-reaching implications.

He was deeply involved in the decision to withdraw the UK’s objections to arrest warrants being issued against Israeli officials by the International Criminal Court, and was instrumental in the decision to suspend some export permits for weapons to Israel last year.He also said Britain had an “obligation” under international law to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, even though an International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the matter was in no way legally binding.

Although he has never been an MP, Lord Hermer has staunch Left-wing views that have not wavered since his student days.

Born in South Glamorgan, he attended Cardiff High School, a comprehensive, and studied politics at Manchester University, where he developed Left-leaning views that were at odds with those of his father, who was a Conservative councillor in Cardiff.

He held a post with the Union of Jewish Students and worked for the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, then studied law and was called to the bar in 1993, joining Doughty Street Chambers three years after it was founded by Sir Keir and others.

When he was made a QC in 2009, it was Sir Keir who gave the toast at the reception. He worked with Sir Keir on a number of cases, and in 2012 moved to Matrix Chambers, the human rights specialists founded by Cherie Blair and others. In 2019, he became a deputy High Court judge.