Sir Keir Starmer has hit out at a Tory frontbencher who is sitting in the shadow cabinet while he acts as a lawyer for Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, the shadow attorney general, is among the top barristers representing Mr Abramovich in a legal case on Jersey.
The former Chelsea owner is caught up in a legal battle with the Channel island’s government after it launched an investigation into the source of more than £5.3 billion assets linked to him which are held there.
According to several reports, the legal action is said to be delaying the release of funds from Mr Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea Football Club, which the UK Government wants to see used to help rebuild Ukraine after the war ends.
As a result of the case, Lord Wolfson has recused himself from providing legal advice to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch on issues relating to Russia and Ukraine, including the potential deployment of British troops.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs Badenoch criticised Labour’s Attorney General Lord Hermer for previously representing Gerry Adams and Shamima Begum.
“I will take our shadow attorney general every day of the week against his Attorney General,” she told the Commons.
Lord Hermer has previously faced questions over his previous work representing the former Sinn Fein leader, with some claiming it could result in possible conflicts of interest in his Government work.
Speaking on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said: “How can someone sit in her shadow cabinet, advising someone trying to escape sanctions, and pretend that their policy is to support us on sanctions?”
Mrs Badenoch replied: “Do they know what the shadow attorney general is doing? He is defending veterans pro-bono against the actions of this Government on this side of the House. We will defend those who defended us.
“But why don’t we talk about the actual Attorney General who is sitting in Cabinet? The man who defended Gerry Adams, the man who is trying to bring Shamima Begum back into the country, the man who is helping to surrender the Chagos Islands.
“I will take our shadow attorney general every day of the week against his Attorney General.”
Sir Keir replied: “Of course, I accept that lawyers have to represent all sorts of clients. The question is whether the shadow attorney general can sit in the shadow cabinet when the party opposite says it supports us on sanctions?
“We want the money from Chelsea Football Club to go to Ukraine. I’m not sure whether that’s her position.
“If it is her position, presumably it’s something they discuss in the shadow cabinet, advised by a shadow attorney general who is representing the very man whose money we want to send to Ukraine.
“If she can’t see the conflict of interest in that, then she shows no judgment and no leadership at all.
“It’s a new year, but the leader of the Opposition has got absolutely nothing to offer the country. She is totally irrelevant. Nobody is listening to her.”
A spokesman for Mrs Badenoch said Lord Wolfson does not sit in the shadow cabinet and the Jersey case was a “completely different jurisdiction”.
“It has absolutely no read across to the £ 2.5 billion held from the sale of Chelsea FC and the Conservatives have said on multiple occasions and will repeat again, we want to see those funds get out and get to Ukraine as soon as possible,” he said.
Lord Wolfson “has recused himself from legal advice on Ukraine and Russia, as is standard practice”.
Legal advice on those issues could be provided by shadow solicitor general Helen Grant or lawyers around the shadow cabinet table including shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, the spokesman indicated.
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