It started with a throwaway comment from one Labour MP to me about a month ago, “if you really want to get on under Starmer, you have to be a claimant lawyer”. What do you mean, I asked, “The PM likes people he can relate to, with a legal background, especially if it involves human rights or employment rights”.
While the green benches of the House of Commons have long been a natural habitat for the legal profession, were they correct? Are we seeing a new and distinctly more litigious breed of lawyer beginning to exert a significant influence over British politics?
In this exclusive investigation, Parliament News takes a look at the rise of claimant lawyers under Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Our report suggests a move away from the traditional “lawyer-MP” – a high-street solicitor or a criminal barrister with an eye for a neat turn of phrase and a safe seat to a far more specific trend: the rapid ascent of claimant-side lawyers: those who make their living by bringing massive, often multi-billion pound claims against major corporations, into the highest echelons of the UK government.
This isn’t just about professional background; it’s about a revolving door that is spinning faster than a junior associate on a Friday night, placing individuals who once spearheaded class actions in charge of the very regulatory frameworks their former firms inhabit.
The most striking example of this trend is undoubtedly Lucy Rigby KC MP, who now serves as the City Minister. Before she was elected to Parliament in 2024, Rigby wasn’t just any lawyer; she was a partner at Hausfeld LLP, a firm that has become synonymous with the “claimant specialist” tag.
Hausfeld is the legal powerhouse behind the landmark Merricks v Mastercard case, a legal odyssey that redefined the landscape of collective proceedings in the UK. One industry insider, recently quoted by City AM, didn’t mince words when describing her appointment, suggesting that Rigby provides claimant firms with an “influential” ally at a time when the Labour government’s reforms “could pave the way for US-style class actions.” To have a former partner from the firm that broke the Mastercard dam now overseeing the City of London is a narrative arc that even the most ambitious legal thriller might find a bit on the nose.
But Rigby is far from a lone pioneer in this space. Jake Richards MP, now a Minister in the Ministry of Justice, brings his own heavy-hitting claimant pedigree to the government. A barrister by trade, Richards previously worked at Pogust Goodhead: often abbreviated as PG: the firm that has made global headlines for its £36 billion action against BHP over the Mariana dam collapse in Brazil.
Since entering Parliament in October 2024, Richards has remained notably engaged with the issues he once litigated; he was seen attending a meeting with victims of the dam collapse within the halls of Parliament. His rapid rise hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Westminster gossip mill, especially given a family tree that reads like a directory of the British political establishment. Richards is the son of the political journalist Steve Richards. He is engaged to the Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates, and the brother of a special adviser to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. In the Venn diagram of media, lobbying, and law, the Richards family appears to occupy the very centre.
The firm Richards left behind, Pogust Goodhead, has itself been undergoing a period of high-octane corporate drama that wouldn’t look out of place in a boardroom battle. The firm was recently shaken by a significant internal shakeup when its American hedge fund backers, Gramercy, moved to oust the founder, Thomas Goodhead. This wasn’t a quiet departure. The removal of Goodhead precipitated what can only be described as a “revolt” among the firm’s lawyers.
At least 30 legal professionals at the firm signed a stinging letter to the board, citing a total “lack of communication and transparency regarding the reasons for the upheaval.” Despite the internal friction, Gramercy has doubled down on its investment, providing a $65 million credit facility to Pogust Goodhead. This deeper financial tie essentially fuses the interests of the American hedge fund with the UK firm, piling on the pressure for PG to secure favourable outcomes in its high-profile class actions: the very types of actions that the current government is currently considering the future of.
The connections between Pogust Goodhead and the current Cabinet go even deeper than a single Minister. Simon Alcock, the firm’s erstwhile Head of Corporate Affairs, has a CV that is pure Labour royalty. He previously served as the Head of Policy and Senior Political Advisor to Ed Miliband during his tenure as leader of the party from 2010 to 2015. Miliband is now, of course, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.
It’s not just in the Commons where we see this influence. Attorney General, Lord Hermer, has been involved in an impressive list of cases against the British state or UK companies. Now the highest law officer of the Crown and chief legal adviser to the Sovereign and Government for matters relating to England and Wales. And then of course there is Lord Falconer. A close friend of Peter Mandelson (he introduced him to the House of Lords) and Tony Blair, with whom he shared a flat, he is the ultimate Labour fixer, who is suspected of advising Sir Keir Starmer on a slew of policies, everything from assisted dying to benefit cuts. A well-known critic of the so-called hard left of the Labour Party, he played an important role in undermining the National Union of Miners, yet drew accusations of hypocrisy for accepting a contract to represent the Republic of Djibouti – which has been accused of ‘crimes against humanity’.
While there is absolutely no suggestion that any of these individuals has acted improperly, the sheer density of the network is remarkable. It paints a picture of a claimant legal sector that is not just lobbying the Starmer government from the outside, but is fundamentally woven into its fabric.
It would be a mistake, however, to think that the “lawyer-to-politician” pipeline is limited to the new-age class action specialists. Labour’s ties to the claimant sector are broad and historical, particularly through Thompsons Solicitors. As a trade union-linked firm, Thompsons has long been the engine room for class actions on behalf of workers. A significant number of high-ranking Labour politicians have spent time in the Thompsons trenches, including Jo Stevens, the Secretary of State for Wales, and Ellie Reeves, the Solicitor General. Even on the party’s left wing, the link remains strong, with MPs like Richard Burgon and Andy McDonald having worked for the firm. In many ways, Thompsons provided the blueprint for the legal-political synergy that the newer, more commercial firms like Hausfeld and Pogust Goodhead are now following.
This surge of claimant lawyers into Westminster coincides with a pivotal moment for the UK legal system. The government is currently wrestling with its position on third-party litigation funding: the financial fuel that allows these massive class actions to happen in the first place.
This issue became white-hot following the Supreme Court’s PACCAR judgment, which effectively threw the legality of many litigation funding agreements into doubt. The industry warned that the ruling could kill off the UK’s burgeoning class action regime. In response, the government announced in 2025 that it would legislate to mitigate the effects of the PACCAR ruling, a move widely seen as a major victory for the claimant sector and their funders.
As the government moves forward with these legislative changes, the presence of former partners and barristers from the very firms that could potentially benefit most from a robust class action regime will continue to draw scrutiny.
It is an era where “lawfare” is becoming as common as traditional warfare, and the UK’s regulatory framework is the prize. There is a sense that the battle for the future of the UK economy is being fought as much in the courts and the Cabinet office as it is on the factory floor.
The rise of the “Class Action Cabinet” doesn’t necessarily signal a conspiracy, but it does reflect a profound shift in where power lies. The influence of claimant-side lawyers is no longer a peripheral concern for businesses; it is a core component of the political landscape. As these lawyers-turned-ministers begin to draft the rules for the next decade, the question isn’t whether they have the expertise: they clearly do: but whether the “revolving door” has become so well-greased that the distinction between the courtroom and the committee room has started to blur? The problem, as the MP put it to me, is that this is excluding those with other backgrounds, those with different lived experiences who would give the Government a different, broader and perhaps more authentically Labour view of the world. They concluded by adding that had the PM “embraced all the talents within the [Labour] Party” and listened to their advice, the disgraced Peter Mandelson would never have been brought back and appointed as our Ambassador in Washington.
