Andy Burnham has become the first Labour prime minister to appoint a non-lawyer to the post of lord chancellor. Alex Norris MP is a former trade union official who was elected to parliament for Nottingham North in 2017. Under Sir Keir Starmer he served as minister for border security and asylum in the Home Office.
Meanwhile Ellie Reeves KC MP was named as attorney general, a promotion from her role as solicitor general under Starmer. The appointments follow yesterday's dismissal of David Lammy and Lord Hermer following Burnham's assumption of office.
The appointment of a lay lord chancellor and head of the judiciary, made possible by the Constitutional Reform Act, returns to a practice established by the coalition government with the appointment of Chris Grayling in 2012. He was succeeded by Michael Gove, Liz Truss and David Lidington before the post reverted to being held by lawyers.
Norris was named as both lord chancellor and secretary of state for justice. In his previous ministerial role his responsibilities included reducing small boat arrivals and organised immigration crime, reducing the asylum caseload and handling immigration enforcement.
Reeves studied law at Oxford and was called to the bar before practising with a London law firm as an employment rights lawyer, mainly representing trade union members.
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