Cherie Booth escapes censure for lobbying MPs

The Lord Chancellor has dismissed a complaint against Cherie Booth QC that she acted improperly by soliciting support from Labour MPs before the invasion of Iraq.

But in reaching his decision Lord Irvine of Lairg hinted that as long as Ms Booth, a part-time judge, was the wife of the Prime Minister or continued to engage in political activity she would not realise her ambition of becoming a senior judge.

Lord Irvine's decision to take no action against his friend and former pupil follows a complaint from a retired civil servant who claimed Ms Booth's political activities were incompatible with her role as a judge.

Days before the vital House of Commons vote for military action against Iraq Ms Booth was reported to have telephoned a number of wavering MPs to persuade them to support the Government.

The Lord Chancellor has ruled that when she canvassed the MPs she was acting as the Prime Minister's wife and as a well-known supporter and prominent member of the Labour Party, not in her capacity as a judge.

Lord Irvine stressed that Ms Booth's judicial post of recorder is part time. "In common with other part-time judicial post-holders," said Lord Irvine, "recorders only hold office while actually sitting judicially. This being the case, recorders are not subject to the same restrictions on political activity as full-time judges."

The guidance says part-time judges are expected to refrain from any activity, political or otherwise, which would conflict with their judicial office or be seen to compromise their impartiality. This means that an MP, parliamentary candidate or local councillor should not sit as a recorder within their own constituency or the area covered by the council. But Lord Irvine said: "Recorders are not prevented from engaging in political activities more generally, and indeed many distinguished lawyers who are members of Parliament or peers, with the obvious political affiliations and activities that this entails, have sat and do sit as recorders."

Lord Irvine said recorders who were members of Parliament, or who had other prominent political associations, "would of course not be expected to sit judicially in any case in which their party affiliations or political views were of any relevance".