Michael MansfieldKC (born 12 October 1941) is an English barrister and head of chambers at Nexus Chambers.[1] He was recently described as "The king of human rights work" by The Legal 500 and as a leading Silk in civil liberties and human rights (including actions against the police).
Mansfield has been referred to as a "champagne socialist" though he has said that 95 per cent of his work comes from legal aid.[12]
Lockerbie bombing
Warning against over-reliance upon forensic science to secure convictions, Mansfield in the BBC ScotlandFrontline Scotland TV programme "Silence over Lockerbie", broadcast on 14 October 1997, said he wanted to make just one point:
Forensic science is not immutable. They're not written in tablets of stone, and the biggest mistake that anyone can make—public, expert or anyone else alike—is to believe that forensic science is somehow beyond reproach: it is not! The biggest miscarriages of justice in the United Kingdom, many of them emanate from cases in which forensic science has been shown to be wrong. And the moment a forensic scientist or anyone else says: 'I am sure this marries up with that' I get worried.
Political views
In November 2019, along with other public figures, Mansfield signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world", and endorsed Corbyn in the 2019 UK general election.[13] In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, he signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few."[14][15]
Charity work
He is an environmental and animal rights activist and in 2019 said that meat may become banned in the future, and there should be a law made to criminalise ecocide, or destruction of the environment as a result of intensive animal agriculture.[16] Mansfield is a patron of the animal rights organisation Viva! (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals) and refers to meat production as "genocide".[17]
He is also patron of Hastings Advice and Representation Centre, a charity providing free welfare benefit advice and representation for local people in Hastings, East Sussex and the surrounding area.[citation needed] He is a co-founder and trustee of the charity Silence of Suicide (SOS).[18]
Personal life
Mansfield has been married three times. He was married for 19 years to Melian Bordes, with whom he had five children, Johnathan, Anna, Louise, Leo and Kieran, and for 30 years to the artist/filmmaker Yvette Vanson, from whom he separated in 2014 and with whom he had a son, Fred. He has been with his current wife, Yvette Greenway, since 2015.[19][20] His daughter, Anna, died of suicide in May 2015.[21]
^Edemariam, Aida (19 July 2013). "'There is now a republican movement': anti-royal campaigners get organised". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 June 2020. One of the things I thought staggering," says Michael Mansfield, QC, another republican, who acted for Mohamed al-Fayed in the inquest into the deaths of Dodi al-Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales, "was the increase of the Queen's sovereign grant. She's getting £5m more than she got last year. That was the day after Osborne outlined cuts of £11.5bn. Now, I know she's got expenses – I dare say the refurbishment of Kensington Palace is necessary but why does the public have to foot the £600,000 bill, rather than the Queen?
^Dyer, Clare (8 April 2008). "The great defender?". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 June 2020. No mere mouthpiece, Mansfield is a socialist who throws himself passionately into his clients' causes.
^Mansfield, Michael, Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer. London: Bloomsbury, 2009.
