David Lammy faces Labour riot regardless of juries u-turn | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Keir Starmer and David Lammy consider “ordinary people are too stupid” to sit down on juries and oversee justice, Robert Jenrick has warned.

Justice Secretary Mr Lammy instructed MPs judges will determine guilt in circumstances “with a likely sentence of three years or less” in new so-called “Swift Courts”.

But Mr Jenrick, the Shadow Justice Secretary, warned the bombshell proposals are “the beginning of the end for jury trials”, including that the controversial plans “won’t even guarantee the backlog falls”.

It comes as Labour MPs vowed to insurgent and try to block the laws.

The plan to abolish jury trials will probably be deemed successful if the backlog begins to fall by the top of this Parliament – in 2029.

But Mr Lammy admitted it can “get worse before it gets better”.

Mr Jenrick mentioned: “If Lammy’s proposals pass, it’s the beginning of the end for jury trials.

“If Lammy was interested in tackling the court backlog he’d get the courts sitting around the clock. But he refuses. He confessed today that slashing jury trials won’t even guarantee the backlog falls.

“The truth is that many in the Labour Party simply don’t trust ordinary people to make decisions.

“The message from Starmer is clear: ordinary people are too stupid, too troublesome, too time-consuming to be trusted with administering justice.”

Leaked plans final week revealed the Deputy Prime Minister wished to go additional, with juries solely listening to homicide, rape, manslaughter and “public interest cases” carrying sentences of 5 years and over.

They have been drawn as much as deal with the document Crown Court backlog, which is at the moment at a document degree of greater than 78,000 circumstances and a few trials are being listed as far sooner or later as 2030.

This is projected to hit greater than 100,000 by 2028.

Under Mr Lammy’s new plans, some sexual assault, housebreaking, drug dealing and theft circumstances will now be heard by a single choose.

The Ministry of Justice will scrap the suitable of defendants to “elect” a jury trial for so-called “either way offences”.

Currently, defendants of either-way offences can have their circumstances heard within the Magistrates’ Court or Crown Court, the place they’ll elect a jury trial.

But judges will now assess a case, and whether it is “likely” to end in a three-year jail sentence or much less, it is going to be heard by both a Justice of the Peace or the brand new Crown Court Bench Division.

Neither of those would require a jury.

But judges within the Crown Court Bench Division will retain full sentencing powers, that means that if the proof of a case stipulates {that a} longer jail time period is important, the choose can utilise them and lock up the felony for longer.

This signifies that, while listening to a sexual assault case, a single choose may hear all of the proof, convict and sentence a felony to 4 or 5 years behind bars.

Magistrates’ powers will even be elevated handy down sentences of as much as 18 months’ imprisonment, up from 12 months at the moment.

The powers may be prolonged to 24 months if crucial.

Ministry of Justice modelling means that the variety of circumstances going to a jury trial will probably be reduce in half.

Some 15,000 circumstances went to trial within the yr to June 2025.

And the MoJ believes round 2,500 will probably be heard within the Crown Court Bench Division, whereas one other 5,000 circumstances will probably be heard by magistrates.

Just 1.5% of circumstances will probably be heard by a jury.

Labour MP Karl Turner mentioned: “In the 15 years I have been in Parliament I haven’t ever voted against the whip but sadly, if it comes to it, I will have to do so. These changes won’t touch the backlog and will not put the victims of crime at the forefront of the criminal justice system. Do right, fear no one.

“This barmy idea won’t help reduce the backlog by much at all if at all”.

Riel Karmy-Jones KC, Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, mentioned: “Let’s be clear – despite the government’s climb down from 5 back to 3 years, the proposal as announced today brings a wrecking ball to a system that is fundamentally sound and has been in place for generations.

“Juries work – they do their job superbly, and without bias. Juries have not caused the backlog.

“Although there are many things the CBA welcomes in the Deputy Prime Minister’s announcement, such as his commitment to the criminal bar, and the increase in sitting days, criminal barristers have been clear from the outset that we overwhelmingly oppose Judge-alone trials in the Crown Court.”

The Law Society of England and Wales warned the proposals “go too far in eroding our fundamental right to be judged by a jury of our own peers”.

Vice-president of the society, Brett Dixon, mentioned: “Allowing a single judge, operating in an under-resourced system, to decide guilt in a serious and potentially life changing case is a dramatic departure from our shared values.”

And a choose at Winchester Crown Court mentioned she believed juries have been crucial for his or her “objectivity”.

Thanking the jury which sat on a rape trial, Judge Jane Miller KC, who’s sitting in retirement, mentioned: “Those of us who sit in this court think the only way cases like this could be tried is by a jury, and not just these types of cases.

“We think a jury brings an objectivity to cases like these which those involved in cases like this all the time cannot do.”

The reforms come as a response to suggestions made in July by Sir Brian Leveson to overtake the courts system.

In his evaluate, the previous senior choose discovered there may be “no constitutional or common law” proper, or proper inside European human rights regulation, for a defendant to be tried by a jury, and so there was no have to restrict reforms due to this.

Mr Lammy defended his plan, telling MPs: “This Government inherited an emergency in the courts: A record and rising backlog currently at 78,000 cases.

“Victims face agonising delays with some trials not listed for years.

“All the while, defendants bide their time. Guilty pleas have decreased every year since 2020. And in the year to June, 11,000 cases were dropped after a charge because victims no longer supported or felt they could support the case.

“Behind the statistics are real people: Katie was repeatedly abused by her partner.

“She reported him to police in 2017. But then had an unbearable 6 year wait for justice.

“During this time, she lost a job due to her mental health deteriorating. She became increasingly isolated, lived in fear, and lost faith in the court system. This is not an isolated failure. It is systemic.”