Tuesday, 18 January, 2000, 16:02 GMT
Lords throw out Bill restricting right to jury trial
By Jon Hibbs, Political Correspondent
Yesterday in Parliament
THE Government experienced its first defeat in the new-style House of Lords last night after peers threw out Jack Straw's plans to restrict the right to jury trial.
Dissident Labour peers joined Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, cross-benchers and former law lords to approve a wrecking amendment that restored the status quo by 222 votes to 126, a majority of 96. Liberal Democrats said the vote was a victory for civil liberties on a historic day for the Lords which demonstrated the importance of an independent second chamber.
But ministers responded by announcing they would withdraw the revised Criminal Justice (Mode of Trial) Bill altogether and reintroduce the original version in the Commons as a separate measure, known as a Number 2 Bill, within weeks.
This procedural device would ensure that the Government could invoke the Parliament Act to get its way if the Lords sought to challenge the jury trial provisions again, since this time they would first have been approved by MPs.
Baroness Jay, the Leader of the Lords, acknowledged that the amendment had "killed off" the Government's intentions but brushed aside calls for a pause while ministers could reflect on the advice given by the Lords. Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Lords, said that bringing in a new Bill after the old one had been "torpedoed" so comprehensively would be regarded "with a great deal of horror" up and down the country.
He attacked "the Government's petulant reaction to the defeat". He said: "We are treading a dangerous road to what would be in effect a unicameralist Britain. We are near a crossroads where the nation must say 'Halt' to the corroding power of the Executive or see meaningful parliamentary scrutiny swept away."
While other critics pointed out that the jury trial proposals were not in Labour's election manifesto, Lady Jay took refuge in the fact that the Government's programme had been endorsed already by the party's huge majority in the Commons.
The Home Secretary's unusual tactics were endorsed at the weekly meeting of the Cabinet yesterday, but left a question-mark over Mr Straw's judgment in introducing such a contentious measure into the Lords in the first place. Mr Straw insisted it was an important ingredient in modernising the criminal justice
system that would speed up justice, help victims and ensure defendants received a full and fair trial.
He said: "It is clear that a majority in the House of Lords is determined to prevent the elected House of Commons from making timely decisions on this matter."
On the day the Royal Commission on the House of Lords produced its blueprint for reform, the Prime Minister's spokesman suggested the behaviour of the Lords demonstrated the need for changes to go further than removing the voting rights of hereditary peers. He said: "We will get this Bill through
anyway." Tony Blair will seek to lay blame for the defeat on the "forces of conservatism" in a speech today. He will say: "It was an alliance of Tories, whose idea this first was, Liberal Democrat leaders and the lawyers' trade union, seeking to wreck a Bill that would help the fight against crime and deliver
up to £100 million for that purpose."
The Bill proposed to restrict the right of defendants to choose to be tried by a jury in the Crown court for a range of middle-ranking offences such as theft, burglary and handling. During a sombre four-hour debate, the Labour rebels were rallied by Baroness Mallalieu, QC, who said the proposal would undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system.
However, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, argued for the change, saying that magistrates were well qualified to decide on the appropriate venue and that the rights of defendants were protected by granting them the opportunity to appeal. Later, Robert Sayer, president of the Law Society, said: "The Government must not treat defeat in the Lords on this profoundly flawed Bill as a challenge to its political virility. Jury trial is a vital safeguard in our democracy."
Return to Taking On Gun Control