Attorney General fought Home Office to help adult migrant claiming to be a child stay in Britain

The case centred on challenging the Home Office's age assessment guidance for asylum seekers, with Lord Hermer arguing it was unlawful due to the risk of incorrect assessments. The legal challenge ultimately failed in the Supreme Court.

The Eritrean man entered the UK alone in 2014, claiming asylum as an unaccompanied minor. He was promptly arrested as an illegal migrant after immigration officers deemed him to be an adult.

British immigration staff assessed that he appeared to be in his mid-20s. This assessment was later supported by Italian authorities, who reported the man had previously told them he was 26 years old.

Under the Immigration Act 2014, adults seeking asylum are treated differently from unaccompanied children, with cases emerging of adults falsely claiming to be minors to secure more lenient treatment.

Lord Hermer contested the Home Office guidance, arguing it permitted unlawful conduct by not sufficiently protecting against mistaken age assessments.

He specifically challenged "criterion C" of the guidance, which allowed officers to classify asylum seekers as adults if their "physical appearance/demeanour very strongly suggests that they are significantly over 18 years of age."

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The case was initially dismissed by the Upper Tribunal but allowed to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

The Secretary of State then appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled on July 30, 2021, that the Home Office guidance for assessing asylum seekers' age was lawful.

Lord Hermer is now facing mounting pressure over his work as a barrister and potential conflicts of interest in his current role.

He has declined to declare whether he has recused himself from advising ministers on matters involving former clients, including Gerry Adams and Afghan families who accused special forces of murder.

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Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has called for Lord Hermer to "publicly recuse" himself from involvement in the Afghanistan inquiry.

He argued the system "works best when you have advocates who are able to take on cases without fear or favour and represent clients irrespective of their own views as to what their client did, whether it was morally right or morally wrong."