The Attorney General: Who Knew What and When?

Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Attorney General said of the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith a few months ago: "I regard the Attorney General as a person of impecable integrity." He repeated this when I interviewed him on 18 Doughty Street a couple of weeks ago. Just because he has had an extra marital affair does not make him a bad man, or a man unfit to hold his office. However, when the affair was with a high flying barrister whose career he was in a position to help, it is legitimate to ask questions. Furthermore, the affair was going on while he was giving advice on the legality of the Iraq war. Inexplicably, he changed his mind on the legality of the war overnight. He had told the PM it could be illegal, and yet 48 hours later told the Cabinet the reverse. At he time it was thought that Lord Falconer, the then Lord Chancellor, had persuaded him of the error of his ways. I understand that Goldsmith's affair with Kim Hollis was common knowledge in the upper echelons of the legal profession and would probably therefore have been known by Falconer. Is it beyond the realms of possibility for Falconer to have hinted at his knowledge at the time to Goldsmith?

And are we really to believe that the Prime Minister knew nothing about the affair, as he told Andrew Marr this morning? I find it highly unlikely. With his wife's contacts I find it incredible. And if the security services didn't know about it and hadn't passed it on, it begs the question as to what they were doing.

There is a legitimate public interest justification for further inquiries here.