Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
Jun 5, 2026 · 36 min · 14 segments
Attorney General Richard Hermer on small boats, his most controversial cases, and why his old friend Keir Starmer can survive a leadership challenge.
Richard HermerGuest
Nick RobinsonHost
I would've said it was more likely that Wales would win back-to-back Rugby World Cup every four years.
[laughs] And you have now got this job, and it's one of those jobs where, as I said in the introduction, you're not very visible, but you're very present making decisions.
If you meet somebody who goes, "Hmm, Attorney General, I don't really understand that." You know, imagine you're in a pub or in a coffee shop, and somebody says to you, "What exactly is this job?"
It's the PM and Secretaries of State and ministers who makes, make the decisions.
it.I attend cabinet, I go to all the cabinet, uh, meetings, uh, but I am not formally, because I'm there as an advisor.
The core part of the job is to provide the Prime Minister and senior ministers with advice on the kind of really kind of crunchy legal issues.
And it's to work a-as well with lawyers across government, of who we've got many thousands, um, to try and ensure that all of government is receiving really high-level legal advice.
You were labeled in one profile in The Guardian, The Herminator, 'cause the view was you block things.
You're always going, "Oh, you know, here he comes with his legal advice telling us what we can't do again."
So I think that's a hundred and eighty degrees in the opposite direction to the truth.
What good lawyers should be doing, what I try to do day in, day out, is to try and find solutions to problems, to try and enable my colleagues to land policies effectively.
I would've said it was more likely that Wales would win back-to-back Rugby World Cup every four years.
[laughs] And you have now got this job, and it's one of those jobs where, as I said in the introduction, you're not very visible, but you're very present making decisions.
If you meet somebody who goes, "Hmm, Attorney General, I don't really understand that." You know, imagine you're in a pub or in a coffee shop, and somebody says to you, "What exactly is this job?"
It's the PM and Secretaries of State and ministers who makes, make the decisions.
it.I attend cabinet, I go to all the cabinet, uh, meetings, uh, but I am not formally, because I'm there as an advisor.
The core part of the job is to provide the Prime Minister and senior ministers with advice on the kind of really kind of crunchy legal issues.
And it's to work a-as well with lawyers across government, of who we've got many thousands, um, to try and ensure that all of government is receiving really high-level legal advice.
You were labeled in one profile in The Guardian, The Herminator, 'cause the view was you block things.
You're always going, "Oh, you know, here he comes with his legal advice telling us what we can't do again."
So I think that's a hundred and eighty degrees in the opposite direction to the truth.
What good lawyers should be doing, what I try to do day in, day out, is to try and find solutions to problems, to try and enable my colleagues to land policies effectively.
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