Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary and former director of public prosecutions, is being prevented by parliamentary rules from speaking in a debate about the rights of crime victims.
The decision to bar Starmer, one of the Commons’ leading experts on the issue, from Tuesday’s session on the policing and crime bill has been backed by Labour’s whips office and the Speaker on protocol grounds.
Before becoming Labour’s Brexit spokesman, Starmer, the MP for Holborn and St Pancras, introduced a private member’s bill to strengthen the right of victims to challenge decisions about criminal investigations and compel people who suspect child abuse to report it.
The bill was written with the help of the anti-stalking charity Voice4Victims and attracted cross-party support. At the last election, the Conservatives promised to introduce a victims’ law, but a bill has yet to appear.
Parliamentary practice is that frontbench spokespeople such as Starmer speak only on their departmental responsibilities, though they can ask for special dispensation to address other issues. Labour’s home affairs team, led by Diane Abbott, is understood to support Starmer’s participation in Tuesday’s debate.
Victims already have the right to review Crown Prosecution Service decisions not to prosecute, but Starmer’s bill would have extended the right to question police decisions.
Starmer’s bill did not gather enough support to become law. However, many of its provisions were attached as amendments to the policing and crime bill, which returns to the Commons on Tuesday. The amendments, coordinated by Starmer and adopted by the House of Lords, empower the victims’ code with legal authority, require professional training on the rights of victims, and compel a “homicide review” to be held in cases where no one has been charged or where there has been an acquittal.
Starmer said: “The key question is whether the government, having put a commitment to a victims’ law in its manifesto, is now going to support these clauses.”
Asked about his enforced silence in the 90-minute debate, Starmer said: “That’s the rules. I’m not grumbling.”
In an article for LabourList, he said the amendments “would not deliver all the progress that is so desperately needed on victims’ rights, but they would be an important step forward.
“They mirror the proposals I put forward last year in my private Member’s bill, the victims of crime bill. After much hard work from victims’ groups and members on all sides, they have now won the support of the House of Lords. If the government shows the will in the House of Commons, they can finally become law.”
Supporters believe the government is unlikely to reject the amendments because the Conservative election manifesto pledged to introduce “a new victims law that will enshrine key rights for victims”.
Harry Fletcher, co-director of Voice4Victims, said: “The issue of enforceable rights for victims has been ignored by successive governments. If the Lords amendments are rejected it will be seen as yet another insult to victims of serious crime. It is imperative that ministers act to reassure victims of their future intentions now.”
- This article was amended on 10 January 2017. An earlier version stated Starmer had written an article for the Guardian. The piece was published on LabourList.
