The Labour party is reported to have chosen former justice minister Lord Bach as its new shadow attorney general.

Bach, 67, who was called to the Middle Temple bar in 1972, will step into the role vacated by Islington MP Emily Thornberry following her tweeted picture of a white van in Rochester two weeks ago.

Bach has been a staunch critic of the government over the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, helping to inflict a record number of defeats in the House of Lords during the passage of the legislation.

In July, he led opposition in the House of Lords to the provisions for asking interveners to pay judicial review costs. Bach accused the government of creating a system of civil justice ‘dismantled so that instead of remaining a gem in our legal crown, it is something which we may soon become ashamed of’.

The life peer, like his predecessor, is also a regular contributor to Twitter, tweeting under the name @FightBach.

Bach served as justice minister under Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010 and has most recently been the shadow foreign and Commonwealth minister. He was voted House magazine’s peer of the year in 2012.

According to Who’s Who, Bach is an Oxford graduate, Leicester City supporter and fan of 'hard-boiled American crime fiction'.