Conservatives announce plan to root out activist judges

Today [Tuesday 7^th October 2025] the Conservative Party is announcing its plans to root out activist judges and reform our legal system.  

In new policy, announced by the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick MP, the Party will reform the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) – giving it new powers to investigate inappropriate conduct, and remove any judge who engages in political activism.  

This means any judge caught campaigning for open borders will be automatically sacked.  

At the moment the JCIO is currently constrained by time limits and onerous rules that tie its hands, especially in respect to striking off activist judges.  

In 2023, only 36 out of 1541 submitted complaints were upheld.   

For instance, Tanwar Ikram, the Deputy Chief Magistrate, was only issued a formal warning despite being found to have committed misconduct by ‘liking' a LinkedIn post that incited violence and raised serious concerns about his impartiality.  

Despite this light-touch punishment, Ikram has continued to serve as a Judicial Appointments Commissioner – responsible for placing other judges onto the bench. 

The body responsible for appointing judges, the Judicial Appoints Commission, will be abolished. 

Instead of this quango, the Conservatives are also pledging to return responsibility for judicial appointments to the Lord Chancellor – accountable to Parliament – to ensure that the laws set by the government and Parliament are upheld by our independent judiciary.  

These reforms come after an investigation by the Shadow Justice Secretary into judicial activism.  

This investigation found that more than 30 sitting judges had previously volunteered free legal services for open-border organisations – with many continuing their support for this cause on social media after assuming their judicial roles.  

The Shadow Justice Secretary has now reported 11 judges to the JCIO for breaching guidelines on public commentary.  

These reforms come alongside the plans that the next Conservative Government would abolish the Sentencing Council, ending two-tier justice in this country.  

It also comes after the Conservatives pledged to overhaul the legal system to end the illegal immigration crisis – including leaving the ECHR, repealing the Human Rights Act and ending Immigration Tribunals, limiting legal aid and restricting most judicial review for immigration matters.

Robert Jenrick, Shadow Justice Secretary, said: 

“I have uncovered a hidden network of activist judges with links to open border campaigns that are subverting the independence of the judiciary. 

“While we may have some of the best lawyers, barristers and judges in the world, it is now beyond any doubt that a deep rot has infected parts of our judiciary.  

“This will come as little surprise to the public, who have been subjected to absurd immigration judgments that work against their interests and risk their safety. We will only restore confidence in the independence of the judiciary through wholesale changes to the way it operates.  

“Leaving the ECHR is an essential first step. But there is no point removing activist judges abroad only to stuck with their friends here. We need root and branch changes. Tinkering is not enough - we need to change fundamentally how judges are appointed and removed.” 

ENDS 

Notes to Editors

The Sentencing Council attempted to introduce two-tier sentencing guidelines that undermine the principle of equality before the law:

• The previous Labour Government set up by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, taking away sentencing powers from elected officials and ushering in a culture of impunity. The Sentencing Council was established by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, passed under the last Labour Government led by Gordon Brown (Legislation.Gov.UK, Coroners and Justice Act 2009, 12 November 2009, link).

• The Sentencing Council drafted two-tier sentencing guidelines that would have meant a criminal is less likely to go to prison for exactly the same crime if from an ethnic or faith minority, or an immigrant. Set to come into effect from 1 April 2025, the new sentencing guidelines would have urged judges and magistrates to request a pre-sentence report these specific cohorts, meaning they would be less likely to receive a custodial sentence. They also issued that would have allowed illegal immigrants to avoid deportation by urging judges to give sentences of less than 12 months for certain offences to avoid deportation, despite the maximum sentence allowed in UK law being considerably higher (Sentencing Council, Imposition of Community and Custodial Sentences – Effective from 1 April 2025, 5 March 2025, link; The Times, 26 March 2025, link).

·       The Justice Secretary called for criminals to be sentenced differently based on their ethnicity, inspiring the Sentencing Council's two-tier sentencing guidelines. David Lammy led a review of the justice system in 2017, title the Lammy Review, which was used by the Sentencing Council when it drew up new guidelines for courts to follow when considering whether to send criminals to prison (The Daily Mail, 7 March 2025, link).

The current judicial appointment system is enabling several judges to fall below the expected standard of conduct and impartiality:

• The current mechanism by which judges are appointed allows for insufficient input from democratically elected Ministers, leading to the appointment of several judges falling below the expected standard of conduct. For example, a former Senior Judge Tanwer Ikram was issued a formal warning for misconduct because he liked a LinkedIn post that incited violence and raised serious concerns about his impartiality (Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, Statement, 11 June 2024, link).

Our Plan

• We will abolish the Sentencing Council and give the Lord Chancellor the power to issue new sentencing guidance, subject to the assent of Parliament. We will do this by introducing new primary legislation to replace the relevant provisions of the Coroners and Justice Act 2008, amend the duties of the Lord Chancellor, as laid out in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, and reallocate the power to issue authoritative sentencing guidelines to the Lord Chancellor.

• We will reform judicial appointments and establish a Judicial Vetting Committee within the Lord Chancellor's office to begin undoing Blair's reform of the judiciary system. We will abolish the Judicial Appointments Commission and give this responsibility back to the Lord Chancellor, who will be informed by a Judicial Vetting Committee appointed by and accountable to the Lord Chancellor to ensure greater transparency around judicial appointments.

• We will reform the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office and introduce new powers to it to tackle politicisation or bias within the judiciary, restoring public confidence in the judiciary. We will introduce new grounds on which the JCIO is empowered to investigate judicial conduct below the senior courts and recommend the removal of judges to the Lord Chancellor, in cases of severe or repeated breaches. We will also move the JCIO within the Lord Chancellor's Office to ensure alignment between judicial appointments, investigation of judicial conduct, and the issuing of judicial guidelines.

• We will establish a Judicial Register of Interests for all judges, ensuring greater transparency. This will require all judges, including part-time judges, to be named and required to declare any charitable affiliations on the same terms as Members of Parliament.