Claims of a two-tier system are disputed

THE professional body which represents magistrates in England has disputed claims by Runcorn and Helsby’s new MP that there is a ‘two-tier’ justice system.

- BY MARK SMITH Local Democracy Reporter

Sarah Pochin won the seat of Runcorn and Helsby for Reform UK, but had previously been a magistrate in Cheshire for more than 20 years.

She quit her role as magistrate to fight the election but during an interview on Talk TV said she had been planning to do so anyway, claiming there was ‘100 per cent’ a two-tier justice system which she had seen get ‘worse and worse’ over the last 20 years.

She said: “How can you be a job like a judge or presiding justice, as I was, and be told that you can’t send certain ethnic minorities to prison, that you have to go soft on certain areas, you can't do that job and have those parameters on you.”