Former Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti has been appointed to lead an independent inquiry into allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour party.
Chakrabarti left Liberty in March to join 39 Essex Chambers as a door tenant. Doughty Street barrister Martha Spurrier has succeeded her as head of the civil rights group.
Chakrabarti, who completed her pupillage at 39 Essex before leaving to work for the Home Office, has now been appointed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to run the review.
The inquiry will report on its findings in two months and is expected to consult with members of the Jewish and other minority and religious communities.
Chakrabarti joined Liberty in 2001, becoming director two years later. She was once dubbed “the most dangerous woman in Britain” for her formidable track record of overturning Government policies.
Returning to chambers, Chakrabarti said: “It is a pleasure and privilege to return to where I learned my law and began my career. Lawyers face unfair attacks but a chambers that produces advocates on both sides of vital disputes and so many senior judges well represents the Rule of Law.”
Her appointment to the Labour inquiry follows a trend of lawyers being appointed to oversee Government-led reports. Clifford Chance partner Simon Davis was instructed by the Conservative party in November to oversee its investigation into allegations of bullying in party ranks.
Davis’s instruction followed his high-profile mandate to review the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) role in a leaked announcement to the Telegraph newspaper in April 2014, which wiped billions of pounds from the value of life insurers.