Sunak’s absurd decision to sue the Covid inquiry judge

Thursday evening saw the extraordinary sight of a government suing a highly respected retired judge from our Court of Appeal, who also now sits in the House of Lords. Perhaps a sheepish admission that this is Trumpian behaviour lay in the government refusing to use her name; instead calling her ‘The Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’. But make no mistake, the UK government is suing a UK judge.

Why? Well, there was an airborne infectious disease called Covid-19. Most of us lived through the chaos it caused. A previous UK government, wanting to see what mistakes were made and how to improve in future, commissioned an inquiry. They chose Baroness Heather Hallett to chair it.

Her credentials are impeccable; she chaired the inquiry into the 7/7 bombings. She is but one of our many outstanding judges. We have the best judges in the world, she is a product or decades of hard work.