The Bar is a noble calling: Rt Hon Alex Chalk KC

This is an interview of two halves. We first meet in the middle of May, just days before Rishi Sunak announces the general election. In his room overlooking leafy St James’s Park, Alex Chalk, then Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State, is looking calm but a lot is going on around us. The day before, the Court of Appeal upheld the mental health disposal of Valdo Calocane following an unduly lenient sentence reference from the Attorney General; in a couple of hours Chalk would be sitting on the front bench as the Prime Minister answers questions about the case. Presumably he won’t want to talk about the case?

‘I’ll just say this. We do need a wholesale review of the law and sentencing on homicide. I see real merit in the US division of murder into first and second degree. For example, GBH leading to death is different from intention to kill. Calocane’s defence of diminished responsibility took him out of murder entirely. We should look at that too. For various reasons sentencing for knife crime is now in a mess after Parliament, with good intentions, increased the tariff for murder in possession of a knife to 25 years. It’s time for a review.’

Born in Cheltenham in 1976 and the first MP for the town to sit in Cabinet, Chalk says he enjoyed ‘a pretty middle-class upbringing. I am the grandson of a tailor. My mother and grandmother were both magistrates.’ Schooling at Winchester College ‘sparked a passion for history, the spoken word and poetry. I love poetry and have committed about a hundred poems to memory. At school we gained a deep-seated concern for our country, for society and for people who have not had an easy start in life. We were taught to question and to push for fairness.’

He read modern history at Magdalen College, Oxford. ‘In the summer of my second year I had to think about what came next. I did some placements, including at the Foreign Office; also two mini pupillages, the second of which was at 18 Red Lion Court in London [now Red Lion Chambers]. This was in the last week of the summer vacation. We were in Snaresbrook Crown Court. I observed some extraordinary advocacy by impressive and well-prepared barristers. All my other options instantly fell away. I see the Bar as a noble calling, whichever side one is representing. It’s an incredible way to secure justice for individuals, and the profession provides the opportunities that deliver social mobility, the very cause that got me into politics in the first place.’

He was called in 2001 and later practised at 6KBW. ‘When I was a tenant, I put on mock trials in schools in deprived areas of London. A scenario I would use was of a pupil accused of stealing another’s mobile phone. I’d assign roles, and then pupils would examine and cross-examine the witnesses. It was extraordinarily uplifting to see these raw talents. One boy came with me to the Old Bailey to watch a trial. I could tell he was gripped. Several years later I was moved to be told he had just won a place at Cambridge to read law. When I see people starting out at the Bar, I thank them and congratulate them on choosing a role that is more than a job, more even than a profession – it’s a vocation, doing your best on behalf of someone else, serving principles that are bigger than any one individual. They are contributing to the kind of country which we all aspire to create.

‘My own favourite part of being a barrister was doing the final speech to the jury, knowing that there had been good and bad days of evidence; and thinking about how to frame the case in light of all that evidence, how to address your opponent’s likely lines and advance your own case. I also enjoyed appellate advocacy. The Court of Appeal is one of our greatest institutions. We are fortunate in having judges of towering intellect. The experience of appearing before them can be daunting but that is a reflection of their calibre. They are invariably on top of the issues and they give just decisions. I speak as someone who said the same whether he won or lost. On the times when we lost, my client would understand why and would be relatively at peace with the outcome. This is the greatest tribute I can pay to our system.’

Chalk practised at the Bar until 2015, when he was elected as MP for Cheltenham at his first attempt for a Westminster seat. ‘Cheltenham is my home town, an incredible town, and I’ve always wanted to do the best for it.’ In the meantime, he had put in eight years as a Conservative councillor on Hammersmith and Fulham Council, four as chair of the planning committee. After his arrival in Parliament he was an active backbencher, quickly becoming a member of the Justice Select Committee. PPS and junior ministerial roles followed in Justice, Defence and as Solicitor General, and in April 2023 he was appointed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.

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We catch up again in early July, as the general election dust is starting to settle. Speaking to the BBC when he lost his seat to the Liberal Democrats, Chalk said he was ‘really proud’ of his record in Cheltenham but ‘I think we also have to recognise we’ve been in power for 14 years and there are seasons in politics. [T]he refrain of “It’s time for change” is one of the most powerful messages in politics.’

He doesn’t say so explicitly but it’s clear enough that he believes his experience of prosecuting and defending at the Bar plus his spell as Solicitor General were invaluable in giving him the experience to perform his responsibilities for the justice system and the administration of the courts.

‘As a practitioner I always knew my first duty was to the court. If material undermines your case, you must disclose it. In the context of the Horizon scandal, I found myself reassuring colleagues in the tea rooms that this is a sacred principle which prosecutors overwhelmingly observe. For many non-practitioners the law can be a secret garden, full of arcane practices. But it’s usually possible to explain legal issues in a way that demonstrates the common sense behind them.

‘And I regularly reminded colleagues of the importance of following the law and of taking legal advice from their lawyers and the law officers. I enjoyed a constructive relationship with the Attorney General and with legal officials. We approached decision-making from the standpoint of respect for legal institutions and fairness and justice for society. We are extra fortunate in our lawyers and in the professional sacrifices they make to work for government.’

I ask if he would nominate a few of his key moments and proudest achievements in Parliament. ‘Ever since I was appointed a junior minister in 2020, access to justice was one of my core priorities. I devised a suite of proposals which I called ELSA (early legal support and advice).

‘As Lord Chancellor I did everything in my power to broaden access to justice by making advice available to people at the earliest stages of any potential dispute or problem, especially in the case of people at risk of losing their homes. I put more money into the system and increased the scope of legal aid.

‘I also persuaded the Treasury to reopen the Spending Review to allocate significant additional funding for courts maintenance. To attract practitioners and to ensure the smooth running of the courts, it is critical that the condition of the estate is prioritised.

‘As a barrister I saw for myself that the poor state of many of these buildings has a big impact on the lives of victims, witnesses and practitioners. As Lord Chancellor I was passionate about improving our court buildings.

‘I was determined too to show my support for our country’s legal sector. The UK has the second largest legal sector in the world [after the US]. It brings in £35-40 billion annually to our GDP. We are genuinely world-beating, punching well above our weight. Over forty different countries base lawyers here. Our legal expertise means that our voice is heard loudly across the world, including, as I am regularly told, in international courts and other institutions.

‘As Lord Chancellor I also knew from the off that I wanted to take decisive action to scrub away the stain of IPPs [imprisonment for public protection sentences]. I spoke out against them unequivocally in my first appearance at the despatch box, and legislated to reduce the minimum licence period from ten to three years as well as introducing a presumption that the licence should lapse.

‘With the Lord Chancellor’s responsibilities for the UK constitution and the rule of law, I long supported proper induction for new MPs and ministers, and I discussed this with the Speaker. There is I’m afraid a conspiracy of romantic hopes which assumes that newly elected MPs have osmotically acquired an understanding the balance of our constitution; also that ministers fresh in post understand how to interpret legal advice and how to weigh legal risk. For example, if a minister is advised before making a proposed decision that the chances of success in court are 50/50, what does that mean? Is that an absolute red flag to the proposal or is it the beginning of an exploration of risk? I remember with affection and gratitude that when I was attending lectures at Cumberland Lodge Patrick Mayhew and Harriet Harman made the time to come and share their valuable experiences with us. New MPs need similar help.’

Any particular advice for his successor as Lord Chancellor, fellow barrister Shabana Mahmood MP? ‘She will do the job in her own way, and I wish her well. Being Lord Chancellor brings of course responsibility for the prison system, ensuring it is safe, secure and decent for prisoners and staff and that it conducts vital rehabilitation work. My mother trained as a probation officer, and I have huge respect for probation and prison staff who work day in day out with people that society prefers not to think about.

‘When I took office in April 2023, the prisons were at over 99% capacity, largely because the remand population had soared by 7,000 as a result of the pandemic. When the government decided (rightly in my view) not to follow some commentators’ calls to scrap jury trials on account of their vulnerability to an airborne virus, the Crown Court caseload rose from 39,000 just before the pandemic to over 60,000. Inevitably a proportion of those additional alleged offenders were in pre-trial detention.

‘A surge of 7,000 in the context of total prison capacity of around 88,000 is plainly unsustainable. I did everything in my power to address this issue, including advocating for decisive early action, taken together with legislating for a presumption against short sentences to relieve pressure. Ultimately, however, you have to win votes in Parliament – and at the end of a political cycle that presents profound challenges.

‘We have more prison places than at any time in our history, and just last year brought on around 3,000 additional places alongside the largest expansion since the Victorian era. But space is finite. There does need to be an honest conversation, based on evidence not emotion, about how that capacity is best deployed to protect the public. At a capital cost of around £600,000 per new cell and an ongoing cost of £49,000 per prisoner per year, there has to be a focus on locking up those we’re scared of, not everyone we’re cross with. Technology also provides many more disposal options; alcohol tags for example have a 97% compliance rate and can form part of a robust sentencing package which delivers credible punishment alongside rehabilitation and restrictions on personal freedom.

‘I hope the next administration will follow the evidence as to what actually works to rehabilitate offenders, cut reoffending and keep the British people safe.’

When asked about his future, Chalk responds: ‘I hope to return to the law. It is my first love. Frankly, I always thought of politics as a bit of a career break.’