Labour would rather spend billions on benefits and migrants hotels than this | Politics | News
Labor would rather spend billions on hotels and welfare benefits for illegal immigrants than protect jury trials, Robert Jenrick has declared. Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy would “rather take away your rights” than curb waste, the shadow Justice Secretary has said. He will argue that jury trials can be preserved by providing the judiciary with more money to serve longer and hear more cases.
Justice Minister Mr Lammy will announce plans on Tuesday to “create faster pathways for lower-level cases” and “free up time for the Crown Court to hear the most serious crimes quickly and fairly”.
The Deputy Prime Minister will insist leaked proposals to abolish the majority of jury trials are necessary due to the “emergency situation in the courts”.
The Labor stalwart leader plans to limit jury trials to murder, rape, manslaughter and “public interest cases” that carry sentences of more than five years.
Mr Jenrick said: “The Justice Secretary has previously defended jury trials, calling them ‘fundamental to our democracy’. But now in government, he has completely abandoned his principles. There is no shame in Calamity Lammy.”
In a separate column for grassroots website ConservativeHome, Mr Jenrick added: “Make no mistake: Labor’s proposal to scrap jury trials for the vast majority of cases is an attack on our ancient freedoms.
“If Lammy’s proposals are accepted, an estimated 95 per cent of cases will be decided by a single Judge.
“It is technocrat politics that sees the public as an inconvenience rather than a partner in the administration of justice, driven by the arrogance that lawyers know best.
“Jurors 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 institution.”
“We see a government that can find billions of dollars to house illegal immigrants in hotels and fund a bloated welfare state, but advocates poverty when it comes to the basic machinery of British justice. They would rather deprive you of your rights than eliminate the waste of the state.”
The move to give victims the “speedy justice they deserve” comes at a time when there is a record backlog of cases in the crown courts totaling more than 78,000, with cases listed until 2030.
Ministers have warned that the backlog could rise to 100,000 by 2028 if nothing is done, with a growing number of victims giving up on seeking justice due to long delays.
The Ministry of Justice said the Government would “streamline court processes to reduce delays”.
And justice chiefs will “create faster pathways for lower-level cases, as in Canada”.
Suspected criminals in Canada can only request a jury trial if they face a prison sentence of five years or more.
According to the latest Victim Survey, less than half of victims are confident they will receive justice.
More than a quarter of all cases at the Crown Court have been open for a year or more, and almost half of these are for violent and sexual offences, the Ministry of Justice said.
But Riel Karmy-Jones KC, President of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “The government talks about its commitment to protecting its citizens from harm, violence and sexual offences, but it is hollowing out that protection by eroding the public’s right to a trial by jury.
“It is not juries that are causing the delays. Rather, all the consequences of years of underfunding look set to continue: artificial caps on sitting days, collapsing courts, inadequate technology, inability to deliver prisoners to court on time, lack of interpreters and problems with funding experts.
“Imposing an untried, untested layer of complexity and cost on our grossly underfunded system with its crumbling infrastructure, in the form of any new department of the Crown Court, is counter-intuitive.
“Although the government uses the experiences of other countries as an example for its approach, we are not other countries. Our legal system is different. It is wrong to quickly choose from other systems.
“We’ve been holding things together for years. We were warning that this day would come, but it was ignored.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister David Lammy MP said: “Today I am calling for a state of emergency in the courts that has kept victims of the most serious crimes waiting for years for justice and brought the justice system to the brink of collapse.
“For many victims, justice delayed often means justice denied. Some give up on the process, while others do not trust that if they report a crime, justice will be served and the perpetrators will never be held accountable.
“The system we have inherited has led to a backlog of cases at the Crown Court, with 100,000 unsolved cases due by 2028. Behind each of these cases is a victim who has been forced to put her life on hold while she desperately awaits justice.
“This cannot continue like this; we must be brave. I will create a swift and fair justice plan that will give victims and survivors the swift justice they deserve.”
Sir Brian Leveson’s review of the court system recommended that juries be reserved for hearing the most serious cases, with lesser offenses directed to magistrates’ courts or a proposed intermediate court where one judge would sit with two lay magistrates.
