Labour MP Shabana Mahmood has been sworn in as the new Lord Chancellor and justice secretary by Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill at a Royal Courts of Justice ceremony.

Mahmood swore her oath on the Quran as Carr welcomed the Labour MP alongside new attorney general Richard Hermer KC and solicitor general Sarah Sackman MP.

The event’s significance was not lost on Carr, who noted that not only is Mahmood the first Muslim Lord Chancellor, it is also “the first time that a Lady Chief Justice has sworn in a female Lord Chancellor. Both of these firsts highlight how your office, our constitution in microcosm, continues to evolve and reflect the society it serves”.

Carr reminded Mahmood that “the primary duty – the primary service – of any government is to protect its citizens” through securing the rule of law at home and abroad. She referenced Mahmood’s statutory duties to uphold the rule of law and judicial independence and ensure a “properly financed, efficient and effective system” to support both courts and tribunals.

“Securing the first of the three duties necessarily depends upon securing the latter two,” Carr said.

Mahmood, also the first employed barrister to hold the role, said: “Once a little girl from Small Heath who worked behind the till at her parents’ corner shop [and] never dared to dream she would be sitting before you today counted among the holders of this role.”

While being the first Muslim justice secretary was “a privilege and also a burden”, Mahmood said: “Getting this right can open doors. When I walked through the Ministry of Justice 10 days ago… I walked past [pictures of] my predecessors… they all looked alike, and none looked like me.”

Carr also praised Hermer and Sackman as the UK government’s legal advisers, who many lawyers expect to focus on legal excellence and integrity in advising the UK government, some previous incumbents having been accused of political opportunism.

Carr said Hermer’s “experience at the Bar should well equip” him to perform his “many duties outside the courts and before them”, adding that “it is quite possibly the first time that both law officers have hailed from the same chambers”, namely Matrix Chambers. Both barristers are also Jewish, another first for their office.

Noting Hermer’s experience at chambers in Cardiff, alongside his work at Doughty Street and, subsequently, Matrix, she praised him for leading the settlement negotiations for 900 of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.  

In their oaths, Hermer and Sackman both promised to respect the rule of law, with Hermer saying: “As we face the challenging path ahead, the rule of law will be the lodestar for this government.”

He added that “from the Prime Minister down, the new government is comprised of individuals who have the rule of law imprinted into their DNA, none more so than our new Lord Chancellor”. 

Hermer added that he would seek “to ensure a cross-party consensus about our shared fundamental values and how we protect them for future generations”, which were British values and were universal in many respects.  

Responding, the chair of the Bar Council, Sam Townend KC, said: “Our moral authority on the international stage, our ability to persuade other nations, our soft power, is underpinned by our respect for human rights and the rule of law.

“Linking these things together underpins our extraordinarily successful legal services market, a great employer, [an] engine for social mobility and a growth sector for the country.”