Michael Shrimpton

Michael Shrimpton (born 9 March 1957 in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England) is a barrister, intelligence & national security consultant, and author. He was a former chairman of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal.

He has written for Veterans Today.

Early life
Having emigrated to Australia after his father retired from the Royal Air Force, Shrimpton was educated mainly in Queensland and New South Wales. He commenced his law studies at the University of Queensland in 1976. He returned to Great Britain in 1978 and graduated in law from University College Cardiff in 1981, where he was President of the Union from 1981-1982. He read for the Bar at the Inns of Court School of Law from 1982-83, passing the Bar Finals in 1983.

Legal career
Shrimpton did his first six with Ian Macdonald and Owen Davies at what is now Garden Court Chambers and his second with Tom Culver at Cloisters, the chambers of John Platts-Mills QC.

He represented Augusto Pinochet in negotiations in Washington, D.C. designed to secure his release and return to Chile. He represented a Zairean asylum seeker in a habeas corpus appeal in R v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex p Muboyayi [1992] 1 QB 244.

He appeared in Webb v EMO Air Cargo (UK) Ltd (No 2).

He represented the Metric Martyrs in Thoburn v Sunderland City Council..

Judicial experience
Shrimpton was appointed in 1992, at the age of 35, to be a part-time Chairman of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal, abolished in 2005. He later sat additionally as an Immigration Adjudicator and Special Adjudicator, trained to hear asylum appeals. He has also sat on Summary Panels and the Bar’s Disciplinary Tribunal.

Politics
Shrimpton stood in Horsham for the Labour Party in the United Kingdom general election, 1987 securing third place and 8.70% of the vote in a four-cornered contest. He defected to the Conservative Party in 1997 on the issue of the European Union