Judges will not be browbeaten by politicians about how they should apply legislation such as anti-terror laws, the new Lord Chief Justice said yesterday.

Lord Phillips said at his first media briefing: "It is never right for a minister to tell a judge how to interpret legislation."

Responding to questions about pressure being applied to judges, he said: " Occasionally one feels that an individual politician is trying to browbeat the judiciary, and that is wholly inappropriate.

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"We are all trying to do our jobs to the best of our abilities."

Stressing that "I intend to keep out of politics", he said judges would not approach their task any differently in the light of Home Secretary Charles Clarke's call for them to balance human rights against state security when deciding deportation cases.

The task of a judge when considering whether an order for deportation had been properly made was constrained by statute, in particular the Human Rights Act, said Lord Phillips.

The Act required judges to have regard to decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

That court had said it was a breach of Article 3 of the Human Rights Convention to deport someone to a country where he or she ran the risk of torture.

A judge faced with such a case would consider seriously all the relevant evidence, including any agreements reached between the UK and foreign states which promised not to use torture.

Lord Phillips said: "I'm taking up this office at a time when it is said in various quarters that judges are in conflict with Government. They are not.

"Judges are in conflict with no one. The judiciary has a clearly defined role which is to apply the law as laid down by Parliament."

Lord Phillips said there was no question of judges " trimming their sails" under pressure from ministers or the public.

"Each judge tries objectively to apply the law to the particular facts before him. There is no scope for bending the law or trimming sails," he said.

Lord Phillips said he was concerned about the number of people in prison - currently about 77,000.

As chairman of the Sentencing Guidelines Council, one of his prime concerns would be to ensure not only that criminals were punished but also that they did not re-offend.

At least half of crimes were committed by people who had already been in prison, he said.

"When you come out of prison, you may have no home, have lost contact with your family, you have no money, you may have an addiction problem, and the likelihood is that you will resort to crime," he said.

Steps must be taken to ensure that prisoners are supported and supervised after their release.

Money spent to that end was "money well spent". It cost £30,000 a year to keep someone in prison and the cost to society of re-offending was enormous.

Lord Phillips succeeds Lord Woolf as Lord Chief Justice. From next April, under the 2005 Constitutional Reform Act, he also takes over judicial functions from the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, including the welfare, training and deployment of 40,000 judges, magistrates and tribunal members throughout England and Wales.