Shami Chakrabarti is to be the new Director of Liberty. She succeeds John Wadham who has been appointed Deputy Chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

A former senior adviser to Ministers in Labour and Conservative Governments, including Michael Howard and Jack Straw, Chakrabarti was one of the Home Office officials responsible for the implementation of the Human Rights Act. A barrister by training, she worked on the passage of 12 Parliamentary Bills and advised on a great deal of sensitive policy. As a Government lawyer, she acted in a number of high profile cases in both the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Shami Chakrabarti joined Liberty in 2001 as the group’s ‘In-House Counsel’ and is now recognised as one of the UK’s leading authorities on anti-terror laws. She says that the measures adopted by the Government in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks have made her ‘ ashamed to be a lawyer.’ The measures, she believes ‘ are inconsistent with the right to liberty and security’ guaranteed by European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights.

Married, with one child, she sees Liberty as ‘ the principal defender of core democratic values.’ But that, she adds, is not something to boast about.

‘It’s actually a rather inglorious statement to have to make. Successive governments have set about eroding our basic rights with only token resistance from within Parliament. The right to trial by jury is under threat and the Home Secretary seems determined to squander billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on an unworkable identity card scheme. I’m honoured to have been appointed Director of Liberty but I’m under no illusion as to the scale of the battles to come.’

Sadiq Khan, Chair of Liberty said: "I am absolutely delighted that Shami has agreed to take on what must be one of the most challenging tasks in British public life. Shami will be spearheading our campaign to protect civil liberties from further attack."