David Lammy's justice system reforms dismantled by ex-Attorney General: 'Grotesque infringement!'

Defending his proposal, Mr Lammy vowed to lay out a "fast and fair justice plan that gives victims and survivors the swift justice they deserve".

He wrote in The Telegraph: "Today I am calling time on the courts emergency that has left victims of the most serious crimes waiting years for justice and pushed the justice system to the brink of collapse.

"For many victims, justice delayed is often justice denied. This simply cannot go on, we must be bold."

But criticising the plans, Sir Michael told GB News: "The fact of the matter is that this is another mastermind decision from David Lammy. The reason for the delays, the reason for the backlog in our court system has got nothing to do with juries, literally nothing to do with it.

"Juries will add a few hours to the average case, perhaps a day at most, for their deliberations in the average Crown Court jury trial, which lasts two or three days."

Highlighting the "real cause" for the system's delay, he added: "What's causing years of delay are empty courts, because of underfunding courtrooms that are not able to function because they're in dilapidated court buildings.

"Judges that aren't able to sit because there isn't the funding allocated to the judiciary to sit on various days, and the increasing complexity of court cases."

Expressing his concern for the reforms, Sir Michael stated: "So what actually causes the delay is nothing to do with juries. If David Lammy actually bothered to ask anyone who works in the Crown Court system, they would perhaps find out that that's the case.

"So this is a grotesque infringement of our fundamental rights. Rights, by the way, that far predate the Human Rights Act and ECHR.

"How is it that this Labour Government is able to say, 'well, we can't touch the ECHR because it's fundamental to the rule of law', and that's only been around for two or three decades. But they want to interfere with an 800-year-old principle of jury trials, and that isn't to do with the rule of law. Well, clearly they're talking nonsense."

Declaring the proposal an "irrational decision", the ex-Attorney General stressed the justice system is already suffering.

He said: "There are unconscionable delays in the court system, that is true, and it shouldn't be the case that cases take years to arrive in court. That puts incredible stress on witnesses, it puts unfair stress on defendants and all the rest of it.

"So justice delayed is justice denied. No one wants delays for two, three, four years, but it isn't anything to do with juries. Juries just add a few hours to the average case, maybe a day at most."

He continued: "There are sometimes years before the police decide whether to charge someone. It can then be another couple of years before a case gets into court, partly because the Crown Prosecution Service are taking so long to decide to prosecute and to collate all of the evidence. So this really is an irrational decision from from this Government."

Demanding an "injection of common sense" by the Labour Government, Sir Michael concluded: "About 95 per cent of cases right now are heard by the magistrates anyway, but it's less than five per cent that that are in front of a jury. So that's not the reason for the delays.

"We've got empty courtrooms, and we need an injection of common sense in many of these cases, and the juries do that in my experience. Without juries, they will get more convictions.

"And if they get more people found guilty, they're going to put more pressure on the prison estate, which is already breaking apart and collapsing under the strain of underinvestment.

"And so they'll be robbing Peter to pay Paul and are going to have to invest more money in the prison system to cater for more prisoners. So all around, this is absolutely the wrong decision."

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