BBC Breakfast issued some more bad news to Keir Starmer.
In a major blow to Sir Keir Starmer, nearly 40 Labour MPs have warned the Prime Minister they are not prepared to support proposals to limit jury trials. The news was delivered on BBC Breakfast this morning (December 18) by chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman. In a letter to Starmer, the MPs reportedly say the plans are “not a silver bullet” to reducing the backlog in trials.
It has been previously proposed that David Lammy announced plans to reserve 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 crown courts.
However, Starmer is now looking at facing another backbench rebellion. Karl Turner, the MP for Hull East, has written to the Prime Minister urging him to drop the proposals.
Turner typed on social media: “Many more MPs, not on this letter, have said they will rebel if necessary.”
Zeffman said on BBC Breakfast: “There are plenty of Labour MPs who not believe that they are dealing with that backlog in the right way. This letter comes from just under 40 Labour MPs. If you look at the list of signatures, most are Labour MPs who are on the left of the party who oppose an awful lot of what Sir Keir Starmer‘s Government does.”
He added: “While the number is large, I don’t think the Government will be especially worried about what this says about their ability to get their proposals through the House of Commons, however, that’s where the welfare rebellion started, and it grew quite significantly.”
Earlier this month, Lammy defended plans to limit jury trials to the most serious offences, such as rape and murder. The Justice Secretary said in the Commons: “In England and Wales, magistrates have long done the vast majority of criminal cases. Today, magistrates hear about 90 per cent of criminal cases.
“In fact, only three per cent of trial cases in England and Wales will ever go before a jury, and almost three quarters of all trials that go into the crown court will continue to be heard by them under our changes.”
Lammy said the new system would deal with cases a fifth faster than jury trials. He said it was necessary, as current projections indicate that case loads will reach 100,000 by 2028.
He added: “I will create new swift courts within the crown court with a judge alone deciding verdicts in trial of either way cases with a likely sentence of three years or less as Sir Brian (Leveson) recommends.”
The letter is also signed by Diane Abbott and labelled the Government’s proposals “an ineffective way of dealing with the crippling backlog in cases in our criminal justice system”.
The MPs added that there is a “growing number of our colleagues who are not prepared to support these proposals”.
