Starmer facing backbench rebellion over axing juries as 38 Labour MPs break ranks with PM in letter

Justice Secretary 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 the crown courts.

In a bombshell letter published on Wednesday, 38 Labour MPs and suspended Labour stalwart Diane Abbott called on the plans to be dropped.

The letter to Sir Keir Starmer was penned by Karl Turner, the MP for Hull East, who has been a vocal critic of Lammy's plans.

He called Lammy's measures "stark raving barmy" in a fiery interview with Ben Kentish on December 3.

"Many more MPs, not on this letter, have said they will rebel if necessary," Mr Turner wrote on social media, as he shared the text of the letter.

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The letter branded the Government's proposals "an ineffective way of dealing with the crippling backlog in cases in our criminal justice system".

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 has previously answered concerns from MPs about the plans by telling them 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 so-called "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.