Sometimes, it’s hard not to feel just a teeny-weeny twinge of sympathy for Jolyon Maugham, the bloviating barrister and executive director of the (Not Very) Good Law Project. In July, Jolyon had his arse handed to him on a plate by Wes Streeting in the High Court, and began a “fortnight” off X/Twitter that is now in its seventh week. In August, it emerged that the Board of the GLP are seeking to appoint a managing director with a job description that will leave Jolyon with little if anything to do at the GLP. And today, chancellor Rachel Reeves brought their 12-month love affair to an end.

As previously documented on this blog, Jolyon’s dalliance with Rachel began in October 2023, when the then shadow chancellor announced that a Labour government would:

Appoint a Covid Corruption Commissioner, supported by a hit squad of investigators [and] equipped with the powers and mandate they need to chase down those who have ripped off the taxpayer, take them to court, and claw back every penny of taxpayer’s money that they can.

In May, after Rishi Sunak called the General Election, Jolyon confidently counselled Conservative MPs they could “quit Parliament, and flee the mess they’ve made” but they would “still be subject to the investigations of Labour’s Covid Corruption Commissioner”. Ooh er! And in June, after the Labour Party published their manifesto, Jolyon gushed:

We are pleased the new government will make every effort to claw back the ill-gotten gains of Tory cronies. There has to be accountability for the industrial-scale levels of PPE sleaze and, we believe, criminality. Labour’s pledge to appoint a Covid Corruption Commissioner, a key ask of ours, is an important first step on the road to finally dealing properly with this sickening scandal.

However, the manifesto pledged only a fixed-term Covid Corruption Commissioner, and – somewhat surprisingly – the accompanying, meticulously constructed fiscal plan, showing how Labour’s various policy pledges would be funded, did not include any forecast of how much money the Commissioner might actually claw back. On this blog, I concluded that Labour were rowing back fast from the meaty pledge made by Reeves in 2023.

And … well, I wasn’t wrong. The Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner, for which the Treasury launched an ‘open competition’ recruitment exercise this morning, is a short-term – just 12 months – appointment, and the Commissioner will be supported only by “a small team of Treasury civil servants”. So, no special powers, no “hit squad of investigators”, and no taking former ministers to court. It turns out those Conservative MPs could quit Parliament and flee the mess they made, because they have absolutely nothing to fear from Labour’s technocratic Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner.

So yes, spare a thought this evening for Jolyon, who had love that’s now departed. All is lost, there’s no place for beginning. All that’s left is an unhappy ending.

Update, 9 September: While there’s no news on the appointment of that managing director, the re-conceptualisation of the GLP nevertheless continues at pace, with an email from Jolyon to (some) GLP supporters on 3 September confessing that the GLP is no longer going to bring legal challenges on transgender issues. Apparently, it’s become too hard to “win rights for the trans community through the courts”. So the GLP is going to fund better climbing walls for trans youth instead. Or something.

And, if you’re still finding it hard to feel sympathy for Jolyon – now in the eighth week of his ‘fortnight’ off X/Twitter – do at least spare a thought for the 10 employees of the Good Law Practice, the “independent” law firm established by the GLP in June 2022.

In particular, spare a thought for associate solicitor Rebekah Hill, who joined the Good Law Practice in April this year, senior associate solicitor Matthew Gill, who joined the firm two months ago, and associate solicitor Gesa Bukowski, who joined the firm last month. Because on Friday (6 September), the GLP announced that they are closing the Good Law Practice. And only some of the 10 employees are “expected to take up similar roles at Good Law Project”.

So, they’re going to be doing less judicial review, but will need more legal advice. Okaaay.

When announcing the creation of the Good Law Practice in 2022, Jolyon said:

We want to foster legal structures that help people respond to the world around them. The engagement that follows is, we believe, how we make a better world and fulfil the desire we all share to leave a better world than we found. Delivering on this is my mission.

Increasingly, it looks like poor Jolyon is going to have to find a new mission.