Labour would rather splurge billions on hotels for illegal migrants and benefit handouts than protect jury trials, Robert Jenrick has declared. The Shadow Justice Secretary said Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy “would rather strip you of your rights” than curb waste. He will argue that by providing the judiciary with more money to sit for longer – and hear more cases – jury trials could be protected.
Mr Lammy, the Justice Secretary, will on Tuesday announce plans to “create faster routes for lower-level cases” and “free up Crown Court time so the most serious crimes are heard swiftly and fairly”.
The Deputy Prime Minister will insist the leaked proposals to abolish the majority of jury trials are necessary because of a “courts emergency”.
The Labour stalwart plans to limit jury trials to murder, rape, manslaughter and “public interest cases” carrying sentences of over five years.
Mr Jenrick said: “The Justice Secretary previously defended jury trials, calling them ‘fundamental to our democracy’. But now he’s in Government he’s completely abandoned his principles. Calamity Lammy has no shame.”
In a separate column, for the grassroots ConservativeHome website, Mr Jenrick added: “Make no mistake: Labour’s proposals to scrap jury trials for the vast majority of cases is an assault on our ancient liberties.
“If Lammy’s proposals pass, an estimated 95 per cent of trials will be decided by a single Judge.
“It is the politics of the technocrat, driven by a lawyers-know-best arrogance that views the public as an inconvenience rather than a partner in the administration of justice.
“Juries pool the collective wisdom of 12 citizens and inject common sense into the courtroom. They ensure that the law does not stray too far from the values of the people it serves. To lose that connection is to sleepwalk into a system where ordinary people are judged by a distant, unfeeling establishment.
“We see a government that can find billions to house illegal migrants in hotels and fund a bloated welfare state, yet pleads poverty when it comes to the fundamental machinery of British justice. They would rather strip you of your rights than strip the state of its waste.”
The move to give victims the “swift justice they deserve” comes amid a record-high backlog of crown court cases totalling more than 78,000, and trials listed as far as 2030.
Ministers have warned the backlog could rise to 100,000 by 2028 if nothing is done, with a growing number of victims giving up on seeking justice because of the lengthy delays.
The Ministry of Justice said the Government will “modernise court processes to reduce delays”.
And justice chiefs will “create faster routes for lower-level cases, as in Canada”.
In Canada, suspected criminals can only request a jury trial if they are facing a prison sentence of five years or more.
Fewer than half of victims are confident they would receive justice, according to the latest Victims Survey.
Over a quarter of all cases in the Crown Court are open for a year or more, with almost half of those being violent and sexual offences, the MoJ said.
But Riel Karmy-Jones KC, Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “The Government talks about its commitment to protect its citizens from harm, violence and sexual offences, but is eviscerating that protection by eroding the public’s right to trial by jury.
“It is not juries that cause delays. Rather it is all the consequences of the years of underfunding that look set to continue: the artificial cap on sitting days, the crumbling courts, the inadequate technology, the failure to deliver prisoners to court on time, the lack of interpreters, and issues with funding of expert witnesses.
“Imposing an untried, untested layer of complexity and cost in the form of any new division of the Crown Court on our desperately underfunded system with its crumbling infrastructure is counter intuitive.
“Whilst the government cites the experience of other countries as precedents for its approach – we are not other countries. Our legal system is different. Cherry-picking at speed from other systems is wrong.
“We have been holding things together for years. We have been warning that this day was coming, but been ignored.”
The Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, David Lammy MP said: “Today I am calling time on the courts emergency that has left victims of the most serious crimes waiting years for justice and pushed the justice system to the brink of collapse.
“For many victims, justice delayed is often justice denied. Some give up on the process, while others have no confidence justice will be served if they report a crime, and perpetrators never held to account.
“The system we inherited has led to a Crown Court backlog due to hit 100,000 outstanding cases by 2028. Behind each of those cases is a victim who has been forced to put their life on hold while they wait desperately for justice.
“This simply cannot go on – we must be bold. I will set out a fast and fair justice plan that gives victims and survivors the swift justice they deserve.”
Sir Brian Leveson’s review of the courts system recommended juries be reserved to hear the most serious cases, with lower offences diverted to magistrates’ courts or to a proposed intermediate court in which a judge would sit with two lay magistrates.
