Boris Johnson’s attack on the judiciary is part of a wider move against the ‘enemy within’

There is a legitimate debate to be had on whether the judiciary has encroached on political territory. But there’s a danger of taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut, writes Andrew Grice

Suella Braverman will have fewer qualms about clipping the judiciary’s wings than her predecessor Geoffrey Cox (AFP)

We must take back control, not just from the EU, but from the judiciary,” Suella Braverman, then a Tory backbencher, wrote last month. “The political has been captured by the legal. Decisions of an executive, legislative and democratic nature have been assumed by our courts.”

Her ConservativeHome column was perfectly timed music to Boris Johnson’s ears. It probably won her a surprise appointment as attorney general two weeks later.

Braverman had another appealing quality for Johnson. She is a Brexiteer, a former chair of the European Research Group who was very briefly a Brexit minister before resigning (as Johnson had already done) over Theresa May’s deal.