By Ben Kerrigan-
British prime minister, Keir Starmer(pictured), is facing the threat of a backbench rebellion over plans to curb jury trials, as 39 MPs broke cover to urge the Prime Minister to U-turn on the plan.
Justice Secretary David Lammy announced plans to maintain jury trials only for when defendants faced serious charges such as rape and murder, and those with a likely sentence of more than three years in prison, in a bid to ease the backlog in the crown courts. The plans have sparked debate ever since they were made public, with very few professional voices outside of Mr Lammy’s cronies, supporting the poorly thought out idea.
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Lammy has faced endless criticism over the proposals, but has refused to back down and see his recommendations for what they are- poor and unacceptable. Now, it appears a number of Mps from his own party may be mounting a rebellion to embarrass both the prime minister and the Justice Secretary.
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.
The letter, also signed by Mother of the House of Commons Diane Abbott, branded the Government’s proposals “an ineffective way of dealing with the crippling backlog in cases in our criminal justice system”.
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The MPs, whose number is largely made up of the left of the party, added there is a “growing number of our colleagues who are not prepared to support these proposals” when it comes to the Commons.
“The drastic restriction of the right to trial by jury is not a silver bullet. To limit a fundamental right for what will make a marginal difference to the backlog, if any, is madness and will cause more problems than it solves,” the letter added.
The MPs suggested a series of alternatives to tackling the backlog, including increasing the number of sitting days for courts.
They said: “Around 130,000 sitting days are available to the courts, yet, despite a capacity crisis, sitting days are restricted by 20,000 a year.”Government plans to increase the number of sitting days by 5,000 are “still a substantial shortfall”, the letter said.
The MPs concluded: “It is our belief that the public will not stand for the erosion of a fundamental right, particularly given that there are numerous other things the Government can do to more effectively reduce the backlog.
“We urge you to think again and come back to the House with a more credible proposal. This problem was not caused by jurors, nor will it be fixed by their eradication from public duty. Every day during the Second World War juries continued to sit reverting from 12 to 7 jurors, we are not at war!
“We Labour Members of Parliament are asking you to pause this proposal until proven evidence can be provided that this proposal will substantially reduce the backlog in the Crown Courts.”
Sir Keir Starmer had attempted to back David Lammy on the controversial proposals by stating that that jury trials already make up only a small proportion of trials in the criminal courts system.
In the Commons last week, he told Mr Turner – who confronted him on the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions – that “juries will remain a cornerstone of our justice system for the most serious cases”.
The Prime Minister also faced calls to place a “sunset clause” on the plans, so that once the court backlog is cleared, jury trials can be restored to all cases they had previously applied to.
Critics are for the large part united in the view that judges cannot be trusted to substitute the views of jurors who are randomly drawn from all walks of life in society.
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