On 27 October 2020 Lord Sumption delivered the 2020 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled “Government by decree – Covid-19 and the Constitution”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDv2gk8aa0&feature=emb_logo

 

“Lord Sumption wowed a virtual audience last night with a hard-hitting attack on the government’s coronavirus policies, accusing ministers of deliberately stoking up fear and acting with a “cavalier disregard for the limits of their legal powers”.

The former Supreme Court justice warned that British society was becoming “totalitarian” and argued that the government had no power to pass lockdown regulations under the Public Health Act.

Sumption has been a leading lockdown sceptic for some time but last night’s speech marked an escalation in his warnings of the dire consequences of “government by decree”.

Delivering an online lecture organised by Cambridge University, Sumption warned that “the British public has not even begun to understand the seriousness of what is happening to our country”.

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