The left-wing government’s plans to scrap jury trials for most cases in Britain cleared a major hurdle on Tuesday as Members of Parliament backed legislation to advance it to the next stage of the lawmaking process.
The deeply controversial measure, concocted by Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy, would upend a millennium of English legal tradition in a supposed bid to reduce the backlog of cases currently waiting to be heard by courts.
The proposed legislation would end the right to be judged by a jury of your peers for cases in which the defendant is facing three years or less in prison. Instead, the fate of the accused would be decided by a single judge.
Lammy claimed on Tuesday that if his changes are not implemented, the already record 80,000 case backlog will balloon to upwards of 200,000 by 2035.
“To restore swift and fair justice, we are pulling every lever available, investment is essential, modernisation is essential, and reform,” he said per the BBC.
Such arguments were apparently enough to convince most left-wing Labour Party MPs on Tuesday to advance the legislation to the next stage, with it passing the reading by 304 to 203.
However, notably, 10 Labour MPs openly rebelled against the government, and ninety more did not record a vote, indicating a large faction currently abstaining.
Should the abstentions coalesce into a formal opposition to the legislation, it is possible for the rebels to defeat the government before the reforms become law, in what would be a significant blow to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s hold on the backbenches of his party.
Among those Labour MPs to vote against the motion was Warrington North MP Charlotte Nichols, who sensationally revealed during the debate that she was a victim of rape and accused the government of having weaponised the issue of rape to guilt lawmakers into their plan to scrap jury trials.
Meanwhile, over 3,200 lawyers have written a letter calling on the government to reverse course, arguing that the central pillar of the legislation’s case — that it will reduce case backlogs — lacks evidence.
The head of the Bar Council, which represents over 18,000 barristers, Kirsty Brimelow KC, said: “This letter and its more than 3,000 signatories demonstrate the unequivocal principled and practical opposition to the restriction of jury trials from not only the Bar, but the legal profession as a whole.
“There is very little evidence to support even basic rationality of the government’s decision to rush through this legislation which unnecessarily removes jury trials from thousands of people.
“It’s not too late for the government to listen to us as experts and as a profession and stop before bulldozing our jury system.”
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