The Appeal Court judge who ruled in favour of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in the Epping migrant hotel case is a long-standing Labour supporter.
Lord Justice David Bean, 71, is a former treasurer of the Society of Labour Lawyers and chaired the left-leaning Fabian Society, which is affiliated to the Labour Party, in 1989 and 1990.
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He was also – with Sir Tony Blair’s barrister wife Cherie – a founder member in 2000 of the left-wing Matrix Chambers, whose members include the current attorney general, Lord Hermer.
On its website, the Society of Labour Lawyers describes itself as “a thinktank and affiliated socialist society which provides legal and policy advice to the Labour Party”.
Founded in 1948 by a future Labour lord chancellor Gerald Gardiner, it declares: “Our objectives are to contribute legal expertise to the Labour Party and uphold the principles of justice, liberty, equality, and the rule of law in the UK and around the world.
“We advise Labour MPs and the House of Lords; develop and scrutinise policy and legislation; contribute to debate within the Labour movement by hosting events and discussions; and mentor future members of the legal profession.
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“We are open to Labour Party members who are also practising or retired lawyers, law students or graduates, academics, and members of the judiciary.”
The Fabian Society describes itself as “a democratically governed socialist society, a Labour affiliate and one of the party’s original founders”.
But Lord Justice Bean isn’t the only judge at the centre of the legal battle over The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, who has a political background and affiliation.
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Sir Stephen Eyre, the High Court judge who ruled in favour of Epping Forest Council earlier this month, was a Conservative parliamentary candidate four times.
His most high-profile bid to become an MP came in the 2004 Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election, won by current Labour MP and former minister Liam Byrne.
Appointed a High Court judge by then Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab in 2021, Sir Stephen was a Tory candidate while working as a barrister.
His first attempt came in 1987, when he stood in Hodge Hill in that year’s general election, coming second behind Labour’s Terry Davis.
Then in 1992, the year of Sir John Major’s 21-seat election victory, he stood for the Northern Ireland Conservatives in the unionist stronghold of Strangford.
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Mr Eyre, as he then was, came fourth behind the official Unionists’ John Taylor, with current Democratic Unionist MP for Antrim East Sammy Wilson in second place.
In 2001, he stood in Stourbridge, where he again came second, this time to Labour’s Debra Shipley, when he cut her majority from nearly 6,000 to under 4,000.
And in the 2004 by-election, he came a distant third as Mr Byrne scraped in by just 460 votes ahead of the Liberal Democrats, who benefited from an Iraq war backlash.
