Ellie Reeves - Attorney General

Ellie Reeves has been appointed attorney general and will attend cabinet.

The sister of former chancellor Rachel Reeves, Ellie has previously attended cabinet as minister without portfolio and Labour Party chair. She had been solicitor general since September 2025.

The former employment rights lawyer, who joined the Labour Party at the age of 15, represents Lewisham West & East Dulwich and has been an MP since 2017.

Eleanor Claire Reeves (born 11 December 1980) is a British barrister and politician who has served as Attorney General for England and Wales since July 2026. She previously served as Solicitor General for England and Wales from September 2025 to July 2026. A member of the Labour Party, she has served as the Member of Parliament for Lewisham West and East Dulwich, formerly Lewisham West and Penge, since 2017. She is the younger sister of former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves. 

Reeves previously served as Shadow Solicitor General from April 2020 to December 2021, Shadow Minister for Prisons and Probation from 2021 to 2023, and as both Minister without Portfolio and as the Chair of the Labour Party from July 2024 until September 2025.

Reeves is a Labour MP, and on the vast majority of issues follows instructions from her party and votes the same way as other Labour MPs

The Attorney General is chief legal adviser to the Crown and has a number of independent public interest functions, as well as overseeing the Law Officers’ departments.

We think that Cabinet Members are advised or briefed by GCHQ and MI5, especially those sitting on the National Security Council (NSC). A particularly interesting situation, where deliberately, there are few paper communications, so that ministers can deny knowledge of issues (plausible deniability). It's all very Mission Impossible stuff, hoisting the flag for conspiracy theories, once the lack transparency and accountability becomes an issue. Such as with the GOV.ONE LOGIN scandal, currently on track to become the third Horizon Post Office, debacle, after the NHS infected blood cover up.


Responsibilities include:

- Overall responsibility for the work of the Attorney General’s Office and superintended departments (the Government Legal Department, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate)

- Specific statutory duty to superintend the discharge of duties by the Director of Public Prosecutions (who heads the Crown Prosecution Service) and the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (organised planning crime)

Non-statutory general oversight of the Government Legal Department, the Services Prosecuting Authority, and government prosecuting departments

- Government’s principal legal adviser dealing with (amongst others) questions of public law, international (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) law, human rights and devolution

- Public interest functions, for example, reference of unduly lenient sentences to the Court of Appeal, bringing proceedings for contempt of court and intervention in certain proceedings to protect charities

- Questions of law arising on Bills and with issues of legal policy

- Oversight of all major international and domestic litigation involving the Government

- Promoting the rule of law at home and internationally

The Attorney General also holds the separate office of Advocate General for Northern Ireland. The Advocate General for Scotland has specific responsibility for Scottish law matters.

CONTACT ANDY BURNHAM & HIS CABINET

Westminster Office
House of Commons

London, SW1A 0AA

Tel: 020 7219 5437

ANDY BURNHAM'S LABOUR PARTY CABINET 2026?

Institutional musical chairs. That may be how the public see the shuffling and re-shuffling of the Cabinets over the years. One thing is for sure, GCHQ, MI5, and MI6 will be advising the various departments, not to admit to miscarriages of justice, that might rock their tenure. Not unless absolutely necessary. This was the same for previous Cabinets, it is nothing new. Labour, Conservative, or even Reform. Never mind an innocent man may have been wrongly convicted. The Andrew Malkinson case is just the tip of the iceberg. Will Dame Vera Baird KC make any difference at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)? That remains to be seen. For sure the Sexual Offences Act 2003, should be reviewed for Article 13 compliance, along with the Human Rights Act 1998. What kind of conspiracy of silence might this be, allegedly?

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://www.gov.uk/government/people/ellie-reeves

https://www.gov.uk/government/people/ellie-reeves