'If Lammy's proposals go ahead, this is the beginning of the end of juries'

KEIR Starmer and David Lammy believe “ordinary people are too stupid” to administer justice on a jury, Robert Jenrick has claimed.

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The Shadow Justice Secretary warned proposals to let judges alone decide on cases with a likely sentence of up to three years were “the beginning of the end for jury trials”.

And he claimed the controversial “swift courts” plan would fail in its aim of reducing the justice backlog.

The plan will be deemed a success if the backlog begins to fall by the end of this Parliament, in 2029.

But Justice Secretary Mr Lammy admitted it will “get worse before it gets better”, as Labour MPs vowed to rebel and try to block the legislation when asked to vote on it in Parliament.

Mr Jenrick said: “If Lammy’s proposals pass, it’s the beginning of the end for jury trials. If Lammy was interested in tackling the court backlog he'd get the courts sitting around the clock. But he refuses.

“He confessed today that slashing jury trials won’t even guarantee the backlog falls.

“The truth is that many in the Labour Party simply don’t trust ordinary people to make decisions. The message from Starmer is clear: ordinary people are too stupid, too troublesome, too time-consuming to be trusted with administering justice.”

Leaked plans last week revealed Mr Lammy had wanted to go further, with juries only hearing murder, rape, manslaughter and “public interest cases” carrying sentences of five years or more.

The proposals were drawn up to tackle the Crown Court backlog, which is currently at a record level of more than 78,000 cases.

Some trials are being listed as far in the future as 2030. The backlog is projected to top 100,000 by 2028.

Under Mr Lammy’s plans, some sexual assault, burglary, drug dealing and robbery cases will now be heard by a single judge.