David Lammy’s bombshell plan to scrap jury trials will fuel fears of tyranny and “arbitary Government”, critics declared.
A letter, signed by more than 50 MPs, told the Justice Secretary said people would “feel judged by a distant establishment”.
And they told the Deputy Prime Minister “the fear of arbitrary Government grows” when criminal cases are decided by a “single official of the state”.
Only murder, rape, manslaughter and “public interest” cases will be heard by juries as part of radical proposals to slash the Crown Court backlog.
Crimes carrying a sentence of five years or more are expected to be amongst those heard by juries.
But suspects charged for crimes such as theft, “serious assaults”, robberies, fraud and many sexual offences will be ruled on by a single judge.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick wrote the letter, and it was signed by more than 50 MPs including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp and former Reform MP Rupert Lowe.
They declared: “It will make it harder for ordinary people to feel that the justice system belongs to them. But above all, this will alter the relationship between the citizen and the criminal law.
“There is no perfect way of determining guilt, but juries are a safety valve in a free society.
“They can, and sometimes do, refuse to enforce laws or prosecutions that offend common sense or decency.
“They bring to bear the combined experience of twelve different lives. When a jury speaks, the public accepts the verdict even when it is unpopular, because it is their neighbours who have decided.
“Once that connection is broken, it will not easily be restored. A system in which serious criminal trials are routinely conducted without juries is one in which trust will ebb away, in which communities will feel judged by a distant establishment, and in which the fear of arbitrary government grows.
“This is not a left or right question. Many of those who most strongly defend jury trial disagree about almost everything else in politics.
“We are united on this: shifting almost all Crown Court trials to judges sitting alone is a step too far.”
All “lower tier offences” would be heard by a judge alone, suggesting that crimes likely to receive a sentence of up to five years would be heard by judges alone.
The plans go significantly further than the recommendations of Sir Brian Leveson, who was commissioned to review the criminal courts and reported in July.
His main recommendation was the creation of an “intermediate court” in which a judge would sit with two lay magistrates.
Under Mr Lammy’s plans, magistrates are also set to have their sentencing powers significantly increased from the maximum prison term of one year to 24 months.
Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, claimed the Magna Carta does not guarantee the rights to a jury trial.
Speaking on Sky News, Mr Jones said: “This all goes back to Magna Carta, if we were going to get into it. Magna Carta is very clear that you have the right to a trial that is timely. What you don’t want is to get clogged up in a system that takes years for justice or your innocence to be proven.”
But Paragraph 39 of the Magna Carta states: “No free man is to be arrested, or imprisoned, or disseised, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any other way ruined, nor will we go against him or send against him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”
And the Labour minister insisted the plan would guarantee quicker trials.
