Shami Chakrabarti

In June 2008, Andy Burnham, the British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, made what Chakrabarti claimed were "insinuations" in an interview in Progress magazine at Shadow Home Secretary David Davis's resignation over the 42-day detention for terror suspects. Davis, a Conservative MP, was said by Burnham to have had "late-night, hand-wringing, heart-melting phone calls with Shami Chakrabarti." Chakrabarti received an apology from Burnham for his "innuendo and attempted character assassination".[20][21]

On 18 April 2009, it was reported in The Times and The Daily Telegraph, that policemen who raided the parliamentary office of the Conservative frontbencher Damian Green and arrested him as part of an inquiry into the leaking of Home Office documents, had searched through e-mails and computer documents going back a number of years, using Chakrabarti's name as one of the keywords. The Times reported her as saying that she believed the actions of Scotland Yard's anti-terror squad "raises very serious questions about just how politicised, even McCarthyite, this operation was."[22][23]

Phil Shiner is a British former human rights solicitor and was Head of Strategic Litigation at Public Interest Lawyers (International) from 2014 until the firm's closure in August 2016, when he was struck off the roll of solicitors in England and Wales over misconduct relating to false abuse claims against British troops.[24] Shiner's disgrace resulted in criticism by former army officers of Chakrabarti and her support for Shiner.

Johnny Mercer MP, a retired Army captain, chided Chakrabarti "almost child-like understanding of military operations" and for "trying to retrospectively apply European Human Rights Law to the battlefield". Richard Kemp, a retired Army colonel and commander of the first Task Force Helmand in Afghanistan in 2003, accused Chakrabarti of being "one of [Shiner's] greatest supporters". He said that she had been saddened by Shiner's downfall and had said that, before "losing his way", he had "given good service to the public" and "did some very good work that has been upheld by a judicial inquiry".[25]

When the London School of Economics accepted a £1.5 million donation from Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Chakrabarti was on the governing board of the institution. Chakrabarti stated that she did not "attend the 2009 Council meeting which approved a donation to the school from Saif Gaddafi's Foundation" and that she "only subsequently raised concerns about links with Mr Gaddafi, given his father's appalling regime." She went on to state that she did not think "the decision in question resulted from anything other than a naive assessment, made in good faith, of the democratic reforming ambitions of the dictator's son."[26]

Howard Davies, LSE Director at the time, resigned over the issue, citing "personal error of judgement."[27] Chakrabarti was accused of hypocrisy by the Student Rights project of the Henry Jackson Society [28] as being "the director of a human rights group while legitimizing murderous regimes" as a governor of the LSE and they called for her (and others) to resign from the LSE.[29] Anthony Glees, director of Buckingham University's Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, also said Chakrabarti should resign.[30]

On 9 December 2011, Chakrabarti wrote to the Metropolitan Police asking them to investigate the legality of the donations.[31] Chakrabarti admitted to feeling "bucketfuls" of embarrassment and shame about the affair and in April 2013 her spokesman confirmed that she had severed all ties with the LSE.[32]

After her appointment in April 2016 as chair of an inquiry into antisemitism and other forms of racism in the Labour Party, Chakrabarti announced that she had joined the party in order to gain members' trust and confidence, and expressed confidence that this would not compromise her independence.[36] Chakrabarti criticised the Conservative Party for not conducting their own enquiry into Islamophobia, following allegations from Sayeeda Warsi in the London's 2016 mayoral election against Sadiq Khan.[37] The Chakrabarti Inquiry report was published in June 2016 and concluded that Labour was "not overrun by anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or other forms of racism," but that there was an "occasionally toxic atmosphere".[38]

Jeremy Corbyn announced her as the only Labour appointment to the House of Lords in August 2016. This was a necessary step to her subsequent appointment as Shadow Attorney General. However, some (including Labour MPs Tom Watson and Wes Streeting) saw this as creating the potential for bias in what should have been an independent inquiry.[39] When asked about the appointment, a spokesman for Corbyn said that Chakrabarti was "an ideal appointment to the Lords".[40]

On 6 September 2016, she was created a life peer as Baroness Chakrabarti, of Kennington in the London Borough of Lambeth.[41] The following month, she was appointed Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales to the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn.

University degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree
England	1994	London School of Economics	Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) [60]

Chancellor, visitor, governor, and fellowships

Location	Date	School	Position
England	2006 – 2015	Oxford Brookes University	Chancellor [61]
England	7 November 2006 –	Middle Temple	Master of the Bench [62]
England	2007 –	Goldsmiths, University of London	Honorary Fellowship [63][64]
England	September 2014 – July 2017	University of Essex	Chancellor [65][66]
England	2014 –	University of Manchester	Honorary Law Professorship [67]
England		Nuffield College, Oxford	Visiting Fellowship
England		Mansfield College, Oxford	Honorary Fellowship
England	– April 2013	London School of Economics	Governor
England	2016 –	Cumberland Lodge	Visiting Fellowship [68]
England	2 March 2017 –	Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge	Honorary Fellowship [69]
England	1 February 2018 –	University of Bristol	Honorary Law Professorship [70]

Honorary degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree
England	19 July 2005	Loughborough University	Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) [71]
England	2006	University of Roehampton	Doctorate [72]
England	2006	Sheffield Hallam University	Doctor of the University (D.Univ.) [73]
England	2007	Staffordshire University	Doctor of the University (D.Univ.) [74]
England	2007	University of East Anglia	Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) [75]
England	July 2007	University of Hull	Doctorate [76]
England	25 July 2008	University of Sussex	Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) [77]
England	1 May 2009	Open University	Doctor of the University (D.Univ.) [78]
England	15 July 2010	University of Exeter	Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) [79][80]
England	21 July 2010	University of Southampton	Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) [81][82]
Wales	13 July 2011	University of Glamorgan	Doctor of the University (D.Univ.) [83][84][85][86][87]
England	18 July 2011	Middlesex University	Doctorate [88]
England	4 December 2012	Newcastle University	Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) [89][90]
England	2013	York St John University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) [91]
Wales	13 July 2015	Cardiff Metropolitan University	Doctor of the University (D.Univ.) [92]
England	4 September 2015	Oxford Brookes University	Doctor of the University (D.Univ.) [61][93][94]
England	2015	Brunel University London	Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) [95]
England	9 December 2016	University of London	Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) [96]