Barristers brand Burnham's jury trials U-turn a 'car crash' as court backlog is admitted to keep rising

From the Newshound archive · first published 3 October 2026 · last updated 5 October 2026.

Andy Burnham has formally abandoned Keir Starmer's proposal to abolish jury trials for most offences, but the Criminal Bar Association immediately condemned the move as a "car crash", warning it will push 25,000 cases a year — among them 5,500 jury trials — into magistrates' courts that are "completely unequipped" to handle them. Justice Secretary Alex Norris acknowledged that the backlog of nearly 81,000 cases will continue to grow until new legislation is in place, while declining to set any target for reducing it.

Serious assaults, sexual offences and child abuse cases will now fall to volunteer magistrates sitting without a jury — the CBA says those courts are already seeing a 16 per cent annual rise in their own backlogs.

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy welcomed the reversal as a win for campaigners, but cautioned that Labour is now "restricting juries by the back door".

Karl Turner, a Labour MP and barrister who had the party whip removed after publicly criticising the original plan, thanked Burnham "for his support during my campaign".