MP Karen Buck Calls on City Hall to oppose legal aid cuts

Published: 19 November, 2010

MP KAREN Buck has called on City Hall to draw up a strategy for dealing with dramatic cuts in legal aid announced by Tory Justice Minister Ken Clarke.

Ms Buck, the MP for Westminster North, has written to chief executive Mike Moore to ask that City Hall produce “the long-promised but never delivered strategy for delivering advice, advocacy and representation for the borough”.  

Her letter comes as lawyers warned the cuts could leave those most in need of legal aid excluded from it.

Solicitor Raj Chada, of Hodge Jones and Allen in Euston, said the cuts would leave people desperate for help without any recourse to legal advice. He added: “This is the end of small legal aid firms and law centres – they will not be able to survive.”

Mr Clarke insisted the cuts would only hit fat-cat lawyers benefiting from public funds.