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Keir Starmer, whose government has drawn up plans to scrap nearly all jury trials, previously said that all criminal cases including those at magistrates courts should be heard before juries, the Guardian can disclose.
In a magazine article, the prime minister wrote that “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”. He called for jury trials to be extended to thousands of cases before magistrates courts “despite the inevitable increase in costs”.
His words have emerged the day after government sources confirmed proposals, which could be rolled out in the new year, that will mean juries will only pass judgment on public interest offences with possible prison sentences of more than five years.
A leaked Whitehall document outlining the proposal drew a swift backlash from senior lawyers who said it would not reduce court backlogs and could “destroy justice as we know it”.
In an article published in Socialist Lawyer magazine in spring 1992, Starmer, who was then reportedly the secretary of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, wrote: “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. Despite the inevitable increase in costs, the Haldane Society urges that there be a right of trial by jury in all criminal cases.”
The Labour leader resigned from the Haldane Society when he was appointed director of public prosecutions in 2008, and was censured by the grouping in 2021 for being “demonstrably not a socialist”.
A government spokesperson said: “Jury trials are fundamental to our justice system and will always be in place for the most serious offences. No final decisions have been made, but the government is determined to get on top of the record backlog – with 78,000 cases and rising – and get victims the justice they need.”
Under the proposals outlined by the justice secretary, David Lammy, jury trials for all except the most serious crimes such as rape, murder and manslaughter would be scrapped in England and Wales. Lone judges would preside over trials for other serious offences meriting sentences of up to five years, he suggested, removing the ancient right to be heard before a jury for thousands of defendants.
The Labour peer and legal expert Helena Kennedy has condemned the plans as a “mistake”. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lady Kennedy said: “The reason that the system is on its knees is because of the ridiculous ways in which we have underfunded the justice system because it’s not seen as important enough. But one of the greatest strengths of the jury system is actually bigger than just to do with law and cases.
“It’s … one of the very few ways that the public can participate in our institutions. The public come into the courtroom and they lend themselves to the system because the judges deal with the law and advise them on the law, and they deal with the facts, they assess whether people are being truthful or not. And it really is a valve on the system, and in every other place, we’re destroying trust in our institutions.”
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Another Labour peer, the former justice secretary Charlie Falconer, defended the proposals. “Increases in the number of offences, increases in disclosure, mean the system, as Brian Leveson has said in his report, just cannot cope. It takes years for a trial to come on. Now, defendants game the system. They therefore say: ‘Let’s plead not guilty and hope the victim and the witnesses go away.’ And they do, and they they get off as a result of that. But the system itself is not fair. If it’s a jury system, we never get reasons for why somebody has been convicted.”
The Ministry of Justice said no final decision had been taken by the government, but sources confirmed the proposals had been circulated throughout Whitehall in preparation for an announcement in the new year.
