Labour rebels believe they can defeat Keir Starmer’s plan to abolish jury trials as ministers were told to stop “weaponising” sex attack victims.
Only murder, rape, manslaughter and “public interest” cases will be heard by juries as part of radical proposals to slash the Crown Court backlog.
Some 39 Labour MPs have already publicly vowed to thwart the plans, with “many more” growing increasingly concerned, plotters believe.
New figures, published by the Ministry of Justice, revealed the Crown Court backlog increased to 79,619. Almost one in four cases were sexual offences.
Labour is using the crisis as a justification for their plan to abolish jury trials.
Senior legal sources have warned the Government is “intent on removing the rights of ordinary people” and taking an “axe” to the values of “British justice and fairness”.
Ministry of Justice modelling suggests that the number of cases going to a jury trial will be cut in half.
Karl Turner, the MP for Hull East, has written to the Prime Minister urging him to drop the plans along with 38 other Labour backbenchers.
He told the Today Programme: “I don’t think it is a death wish. The reality is, everybody on that letter wants the Government to succeed.
“I am a friend of the Prime Minister.
“But I don’t want the Government to make the mistakes that its done in the past.
“We’ve been marched up hills and then back down them again when people suddenly realise that this is not going to get through Parliament.
“I don’t think it will get through. You say it’s just 40 people who are the usual suspects. That’s not true. Many, many more people are coming to me and saying ‘I’m worried about this.”
“That’s the reality. They’ve got to change their mind.”
Alarming projections from the Ministry of Justice revealed the number of trials waiting to be heard could surge from nearly 80,000 now to 130,000 in October 2029.
Under Mr Lammy’s new plans, some sexual assault, burglary, drug dealing and robbery cases will now be heard by a single judge.
The Ministry of Justice will scrap the right of defendants to “elect” a jury trial for so-called “either way offences”.
Currently, defendants of either-way offences can have their cases heard in the Magistrates’ Court or Crown Court, where they can elect a jury trial.
But judges will now assess a case, and if it is “likely” to result in a three-year prison sentence or less, it will be heard by either a magistrate or the new Crown Court Bench Division.
Magistrates are also being given expanded powers to hand out sentences of up to 24 months.
Riel Karmy-Jones KC, Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “This Government must stop weaponising the victims of serious sexual offences caught up in the backlog by claiming that the proposals to restrict jury trial will bring them swifter justice. It won’t, and to say it will is simply not right, nor is it fair to them to give them that false hope and expectation.
“Because there is nothing about these proposals that is swift.
“However, the MOJ could reduce delay today by opening up more courtrooms. It could make a difference today by giving key courts the extra funding that will allow judges to deal with their local backlogs, as is being done in Snaresbrook, and has been done in court centres like Liverpool, Preston, and in Wales.
“The MoJ could unfurl that system country wide to where it is most needed, saving the jury system and saving public faith in justice.
“At the moment, available court rooms are kept shut, and the prison population is being driven to breaking point – not with convicted prisoners, but with thousands of people accused, who are still waiting for their trials.
“We don’t need dramatic gestures that pose as solutions. We don’t need short cuts. Or gimmicks. Or judge-only trials. We need court rooms that function, with ordinary people serving on juries, fulfilling their civic duty, and delivering justice by deciding fairly whether to acquit or convict.
“It has taken years for successive governments to break our justice system through chronic underfunding and neglect. It will take time, patience, and the cooperation of all involved to fix it. It can be done. But it starts with investment.”
