British democracy is on trial. We can no longer hold our leaders to account; the state has too much power; and the truth doesn’t matter at all. Those we voted into government have nothing but contempt for the democratic
system that got them there.

When the Prime Minister illegally prorogued Parliament, barrister Sam Fowles was part of the team that took him to court, and won. The scenes of the police violently restraining women
at a vigil for Sarah Everard shook the nation. In a high-profile parliamentary inquiry, Fowles proved the Met’s actions fundamentally breached our right to protest. For decades, the Post Office pursued criminal prosecutions against its own employees, knowing the evidence was dodgy all along. Fowles helped reveal the rot at the heart of a trusted national institution.

We shouldn’t have to take our rulers to court just to get them to follow the rules. At a crucial juncture for British governance, Fowles urges us not to take our freedoms for granted.

0n 26 March 2020, a new law appeared. In eleven pages it locked down tens of millions of people, confined us to our homes, banned socialising, closed shops, gyms, pubs, places of worship. It restricted our freedoms more than any other law in history, justified by the rapid spread of a deadly new virus.

You may have expected such a law to be fiercely debated in Parliament. But it wasn’t debated at all. A state of emergency was declared, meaning the law came into force the moment it was signed. The emergency was supposed to be short but lasted for 763 days, allowing ministers to bring in, by decree over 100 new laws restricting freedoms more than any in history – laws that were almost never debated, changed at a whim and increasingly confused the public. Meanwhile, behind the doors of Downing Street, officials and even the Prime Minister broke the very laws they had created.

This book tells the startling story of the state of emergency that brought about an Emergency State. A wake-up call from one of the UK’s leading human rights barristers, Emergency State shows us why we must never take our rights for granted.

‘A riveting account of how our democracy was put under threat during the Pandemic and why we must never let the Emergency State – all-powerful but ignorant and corrupt – take over again’, Lady Hale, former President of the UK Supreme Court

‘Clear-eyed, forensic and compelling, Wagner sets out what happened during the Covid-19 pandemic – and the lessons we need to learn’, Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist

British democracy is on trial. We can no longer hold our leaders to account; the state has too much power; and the truth doesn’t matter at all. Those we voted into government have nothing but contempt for the democratic
system that got them there.

When the Prime Minister illegally prorogued Parliament, barrister Sam Fowles was part of the team that took him to court, and won. The scenes of the police violently restraining women
at a vigil for Sarah Everard shook the nation. In a high-profile parliamentary inquiry, Fowles proved the Met’s actions fundamentally breached our right to protest. For decades, the Post Office pursued criminal prosecutions against its own employees, knowing the evidence was dodgy all along. Fowles helped reveal the rot at the heart of a trusted national institution.

We shouldn’t have to take our rulers to court just to get them to follow the rules. At a crucial juncture for British governance, Fowles urges us not to take our freedoms for granted.