Thousands of lawyers have written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer urging him to rethink plans to reduce jury trials in England and Wales, describing the proposals as “unpopular, untested and poorly evidenced”. The letter, signed by 3,200 legal professionals including 300 senior barristers, comes as the government faces its most serious backbench revolt since taking power.
Justice Secretary David Lammy failed to convince leading Labour backbencher Karl Turner, who previously coordinated a letter from 38 MPs opposing the plans. Turner said he had “absolutely not” been swayed after meeting Lammy on Monday night. More than 65 Labour MPs are thought to be considering voting against the bill, though many may abstain and oppose it at a later stage.
The Conservatives are expected to force a vote to block the bill’s second reading on Tuesday. Courts Minister Sarah Sackman could not confirm whether rebellious Labour MPs would lose the whip, but said dissenting voices would help “scrutinise and improve the bill”. Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy accused the government of “an unacceptable attack on an ancient right”.
Lammy has argued the bill is necessary to tackle a near-doubling of the crown court backlog from 38,000 cases in 2019 to nearly 80,000. He told Labour MPs: “When a public service collapses, it is never the wealthy or the well-connected who fall through the cracks first.” However, Jo Hamilton, a former post office operator wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal, warned the plans would “further erode trust in the establishment”.
The letter to Starmer, organised by the Bar Council and signed by former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir David Calvert-Smith, stated that juries had not “caused this crisis” and cited chronic underfunding as the main cause, as highlighted by the Leveson review.
