Diane Abbott has taken aim at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as she expressed her concern for the planned scrapping of jury trials.
Quoting Sir Keir’s words from 1992, Ms Abbott told MPs: “The entire House is concerned about victims, including attacks on women and girls, but the entire House is also concerned about the men and women who will undoubtedly suffer miscarriages of justice if the right to trial by jury is terminated.
“And I would quote from a lawyer – ‘The right to trial by jury is an important factor in the delicate balance between the power of the state and the freedom of the individual. The further it is restricted, the greater the imbalance.’
“That lawyer is our current Prime Minister. He wrote that in 1992. It was as true then as it is true today. How can the Chancellor stand up and propose a limitation of the right to trial by jury, when he knows perfectly well the category of defendant who will suffer the ill effects of that?”
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