The president of the UK Supreme Court has said she disagreed with the court’s decision in a case concerning Northern Ireland residents’ right to access free abortions under the NHS in England.

Reflecting on the case in a recent interview, Lady Hale told BBC News: “I didn’t agree with the majority judgement, but of course we loyally then accept that the majority’s view is the law, that’s how things work.

“But two of us, including Lord Kerr, who is our Northern Ireland justice on the Supreme Court, he and I both thought that there was a duty to provide abortions for women from Northern Ireland in England, or indeed in Wales or Scotland.”

Shortly after the UKSC’s decision, the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments announced plans to allow women from Northern Ireland to access free abortions from their respective healthcare services.

Noting this, Lady Hale said: “The interesting thing about the case of course was that there was immediate political change.

“So sometimes if you don’t bring about legal change the fact that there’s been a legal case highlighting an issue and indicating how evenly balanced the arguments are can lead to political change.”