Labour MP issues plea to Lammy to scrap 'stupid' jury trial plan

A senior Labour MP has issued a plea to Justice Secretary David Lammy to scrap "stupid" plans to reduce the number of jury trials in England and Wales to cut court backlogs.

Karl Turner told the BBC: "It's undemocratic. It is not about reducing the backlog. It is untruthful to say that it is. David Lammy, please God, stop what you're doing."

The former shadow attorney general joins a growing list of Labour MPs to speak out against the plans to deny jury trials for charges expected to bring less than three years in jail.

The Conservatives described the plans as the "beginning of the end of jury trials" but Lammy has insisted the reforms are "bold" but "necessary".

Under Lammy's plans, jury trials will be reserved for cases in "indictable-only" offences such as murder and rape and "either-way" offences with a likely sentence of more than three years in prison.

Volunteer community magistrates, who deal with the majority of all criminal cases, will take on more work and new "swift courts" will be set up.

Lammy told MPs the new system would get cases dealt with a fifth faster than jury trials.

He added that it was necessary as current projections have Crown Court case loads reaching 100,000 by 2028, from the current backlog of almost 78,000.

But speaking to Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live, Turner said "the announcement yesterday is fundamentally dishonest" as the "the backlog in the system isn't caused by the jury system - it's caused by other factors".

Courtrooms were "not fit for purpose" and "bust" technology were causing delays in the system, the Hull East MP argued.

Turner branded the plan unworkable and urged ministers to scrap it or face a humiliating climbdown.

He called on Lammy to "get a grip" and "put this right, put this stupid idea to bed".

Turner's comments add to a growing Labour opposition to the plan.

Six Labour MPs, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, signed Turner's Commons motion against the plans.

Several other prominent left-wingers have criticised the plans publicly.

On Wednesday, Labour MP for Clapham Bell Ribeiro-Addy said "scrapping jury trials would undermine a foundational principle of British justice: the right to have your case heard by fellow citizens."

"We need investment and reform to tackle court backlogs, not the abolition of key legal safeguards," she added.

Responding to Lammy's Commons statement, Labour MP for Walthamstow Stella Creasy said it was "hard to see how" the plan would "address that backlog" given jury trials only accounted for 3% of cases.

In the same debate, Labour's Eltham and Chislehurst MP Clive Efford warned the changes could penalise working-class defendants and create "'us' and 'them' in the criminal justice system.

Richard Burgon, the MP for Leeds East, said the policy sent "a chill through my heart".

The reforms are based on a review by former high-court judge Sir Brian Leveson - which suggested ending jury trial for most crimes attracting sentences of up to five years and diverting offences to a new intermediate court called the Crown Court bench division.

There are around 1.3 million prosecutions in England and Wales every year, and 10% of those cases go before a Crown Court. Of those, three out of 10 result in trials.

The reforms appear to mean that more than two out of 10 will still go before a jury.