Keir Starmer is facing the threat of a backbench rebellion over plans to reduce the number of jury trials in England and Wales as dozens of Labour MPs signed a letter describing the move as “madness”.
The justice secretary, David Lammy, announced plans earlier this month that will take thousands of trials away from the jury system to be heard instead by judges and magistrates.
The government and the retired judge Sir Brian Leveson, who was commissioned to come up with proposals to change the justice system, argue that a record backlog in the courts is failing victims, witnesses and defendants.
A group of 39 Labour MPs have signed a letter urging the prime minister to reverse the plans, which they describe as “an ineffective way of dealing with the crippling backlog in cases in our criminal justice system”.
Downing Street suggested the government intended to stand firm against any backbench rebellion as the prime minister’s official spokesperson pointed to new figures on Thursday showing the crown court backlog in England and Wales had risen to nearly 80,000 cases, a record high.
The open caseload was 79,619 at the end of September, up 2% from 78,096 at the end of June. It is also up 9% from the same point a year earlier, according to Ministry of Justice figures.
Starmer’s spokesperson said: “The scale of the crisis we inherited shows that merely tinkering at the edges is simply not enough. What is required is reform to speed up the delivery of justice.”
In the letter the MPs write: “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, warning that the public “will not stand for the erosion of a fundamental right”.
Karl Turner, the Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull East, who is among those coordinating the letter, said on Thursday that the plans were unworkable and unpopular, citing the majority of people who said they were against the idea during a consultation in Scotland.
He said Lammy “ought to know” the causes of the backlog in cases being heard, adding that it was the private security company Serco not delivering defendants to court on time.
On top of the 39 who had signed the letter, Turner said a growing number of MPs were coming forward to express concerns. “This is not just the usual suspects. There are people on that letter who have never voted against the party during the entire time they have been in it,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I have never voted against the Labour whip ever in the 15 years I have been in. I will do on this because this will not work. It is just simply unworkable. It won’t work and I am afraid the government are going to have to realise that and change their tune.”
Turner said he was a friend of the prime minister and was on “texting terms” with him, but warned that his government was in danger of “making the mistakes of the past” and MPs were being “marched up hills” that they would have to come back down from.
Starmer has previously answered the concerns from his critics in the party about the plans by telling them jury trials already make up only a small proportion of trials in the criminal courts system.
In the Commons last week, Starmer told Turner – who confronted him on the issue at PMQs – that “juries will remain a cornerstone of our justice system for the most serious cases”.
There are almost 80,000 cases waiting to be completed in the crown courts and Lammy has warned that the figure will rise to more than 100,000 without radical changes.
