Judge branded 'enemy of the people' over Brexit ruling dies aged 73

He was the first openly gay judge to be made a Lord Justice of Appeal, following his appointment as a High Court judge in 2001.

When he joined the Court of Appeal in 2008, he said his appointment “shows that diversity in sexuality is not a bar to preferment up to the highest levels of the judiciary”.

He entered a civil partnership in 2006 and in 2014, after a change in the law, he and partner Andrew Stone were married in a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony at West London Synagogue.

He became Chancellor of the High Court in 2013 and was appointed Master of the Rolls – the second most senior judge in England and Wales – in 2016.

Lord Etherton, who studied history and law at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, was in the British sabre team from 1977 to 1980 and qualified for the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow.

He was one of three judges branded “enemies of the people” in a newspaper headline after ruling that triggering Brexit needed parliamentary approval.

Following his retirement from the judiciary, Lord Etherton carried out an independent review into the service and experience of LGBT veterans who served in the armed forces between 1967 and 2000.

In the review published in July 2023, he made 49 recommendations to the Government, including making an “appropriate financial award” to affected veterans.