Robert Jenrick has launched a scathing attack on “incompetent” David Lammy as he tore into the Justice Secretary’s plans to scrap the tradition for thousands of cases.
Speaking to GB News, the Shadow Justice Secretary branded the decision a “disaster” and warned Mr Lammy that he is focusing on the “wrong priorities”.
Following his spar with the Justice Secretary in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr Jenrick fumed: “We laugh about ‘Calamity Lammy’ because he’s such a disaster and incompetence seems to follow him around, but this is actually very serious.
“You’ve got a right that we’ve enjoyed in this country to a jury trial for at least 800 years, perhaps even longer than that, being tossed aside by Keir Starmer and David Lammy because of administrative failure by the Ministry of Justice.”
Stressing that the solution to removing the court backlog is not to remove juries in most cases, Mr Jenrick explained: “Of course, we’ve got to get the backlog of cases in the courts down. It’s wrong that someone is being asked to wait four or five years for a trial.
“Of course, it is particularly for very serious offences like rape, but you don’t fix that by getting rid of this fundamental right and freedom that we’ve enjoyed for such a long period of time. You fix it by getting the court sitting round the clock, and you can do that.”
He stated: “The Lady Chief Justice who runs the whole thing came to Parliament the other day, and said that she’s willing to offer the Government more courtroom sitting days.
“They haven’t taken her up on financial grounds.
“And at the same time, Rachel Reeves is able to find £16billion out of our taxes for benefits, and billions for illegal migrants who broke into the country on small boats – it’s the wrong priorities.
“We want a well-functioning criminal justice system. Get the court backlog down, but don’t wreck jury trials.”
Robert Jenrick launched a scathing attack on David Lammy over his plans to scrap jury trials
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GB NEWS / PA
As host Ellie Costello argued that Mr Lammy would make clear that jury trials “only make up about two per cent of the system”, the Shadow Justice Secretary reiterated that scrapping juries is not the answer.
Mr Jenrick explained: “It is completely shameful to our country that someone could be raped today, and the trial of their perpetrator might take four or five years to come to court, we’ve got to fix that.
“But you don’t need to scrap jury trials in order to do that. You’ve got to get the court sitting around the clock, and you’ve got to do the hard yards of Government.”
Highlighting the “failures” within the justice system, he told GB News: “There’s all sorts of failures right now.
“It’s a paper based system, prisoners aren’t arriving at court on time, young people don’t want to be criminal barristers because it’s poorly paid. Those are the sorts of things you should be focused on.
“And there’s a suspicion of many people that the reason why David Lammy and Keir Starmer and others want to get rid of jury trials is because fundamentally, they don’t trust ordinary people.
“There have been people on the left of British politics who’ve wanted to get rid of them for a very long time.
“I think there is wisdom and common sense from 12 ordinary people our friends, our family, our neighbours coming together and making judgements about people.”
David Lammy outlined the plans in the House of Commons on Tuesday
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GB NEWSAsked by Ellie for his reaction to the confirmation from Mr Lammy that there are two prisoners at large after being accidentally released from prison, Mr Jenrick declared he has “no confidence” in the Justice Secretary.
He stated: “It’s a complete and utter shambles and I have no confidence whatsoever in David Lammy ability to fix it.
“You’ve got someone being mistakenly released from our prisons every other day right now. In fact, it’s more often than that.
“David Lammy came before Parliament three weeks ago after the criminals were released in error from Chelmsford and Wandsworth prisons, and said he was putting in place the most robust checks ever, and the problems actually got worse.”
He added: “There are more people being released now in error, and he won’t be honest with you about who they are, what their crimes are and where they are right now in the country.
“In fact, we only know about these releases because he was asked by a journalist on the media the other day he should be coming before Parliament and telling the public what’s going on.
Mr Jenrick told GB News that prisoners still being mistakenly released is a ‘complete and utter shambles’
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GB NEWS
“We know that there are at least two manhunts right now for dangerous people. We don’t know who they are or what they’ve been convicted of.
“He should be honest with the public and stop hiding what’s actually happening.”
Quizzed on Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget amid the OBR leak chaos, Mr Jenrick told GB News that it is “time for her to go” following the controversy.
He said: “People feel poor right now, they feel like the economy is bumping along the bottom.
“All of the small businesses that I meet are absolutely up against it right now as a result of the rise in national insurance business rates going up.
“It’s now going to be even more expensive to employ people, particularly young people who should be given a leg up and a first start in life for working families.
“Taxpayers are going to get sucked into the higher rates of income tax, the massive stealth tax, and what’s Rachel Reeves done? She’s broken her promises.
“She’s mishandled the economy by creating all this uncertainty and constantly flying kites for every conceivable type of tax rise over the last few months.
“And now she asks for sympathy, despite the fact she’s basically misled the public over the true state of the public finances. People have had enough of Rachel Reeves and it’s time for her to go.”