NOW 'CALAMITY' LAMMY WANTS TO AXE JURY TRIALS

Plan for judges alone to hear cases where sentences are up to five years

- MICHAEL KNOWLES Home Affairs Editor

ABOLISHING jury trials will “destroy” the justice system, fail victims and increase the chances of wrongful convictions, David Lammy was warned.

Only murder, rape, manslaughter and “public interest” cases will be heard by juries as part of radical proposals to slash a Crown Court backlog.

But Justice Secretary Mr Lammy — who has been branded “Calamity Lammy” — faced fury after writing in a memo to other ministers and civil servants that there is “no right” to jury trials in the UK.

Senior legal sources told the Daily Express that Labour is “intent on removing the rights of ordinary people” and taking an “axe” to the values of “British justice and fairness”.

A staggering three in four cases could now be heard by a judge only, with magistrates set to be granted greater sentencing powers.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick blasted: "Calamity Lammy strikes again.

"Lammy once defended jury trials, but now he's getting rid of them in most scenarios.

"Scrapping this pillar of our constitution for the sake of administrative convenience is a disgrace.

"Trial by jury ranks as one of this country's greatest gifts to the world, but Calamity Lammy is intent on throwing it away.

"The Labour Party thinks judges always know best. We see it in their approach to the Chagos Islands, the European Convention on Human Rights and, now, in their willingness to scrap jury trials.