By Gloria Ogbonna
Nigel Farage has pledged that a Reform UK government would fully restore the ancient British right to trial by jury, insisting that the Labour government’s plan to remove jury trials in most cases represents a dangerous assault on personal liberty.
Speaking after Labour ministers confirmed their intention to fast-track criminal cases by replacing juries with single-judge rulings, Farage said his party would immediately reverse the changes if elected.
When asked directly whether he would reinstate jury trials for the thousands of cases Labour intends to reroute away from juries, Farage responded with an emphatic, “Yes, yes!” He accused the government of using the court backlog as an excuse to dismantle one of Britain’s most fundamental protections against state overreach.
Instead of slashing rights, he argued, the government should focus on expanding court capacity and restoring the infrastructure that previously allowed the justice system to function properly.
Farage criticized Labour for “degrading the justice process” by avoiding the real problem—years of courtroom closures and reduced judicial resources. He argued the solution is simple: reopen the shuttered Magistrates’ courts across the country, call back retired lay magistrates to volunteer their service, and extend operational hours in Crown Courts.
According to him, there is “no reason why our Crown Courts for the more serious cases can’t work from seven in the morning to ten at night to clear this backlog.”
He condemned Labour’s reforms as an attack on British heritage, invoking the Magna Carta, the centuries-old document widely seen as the foundation of modern legal rights. Farage said the proposed changes “devalue something called Magna Carta,” and warned that this revered principle of trial by a jury of one’s peers is admired internationally as a hallmark of British liberty.
Removing it, he argued, shows a government willing to sacrifice individual freedoms rather than deal responsibly with systemic failures.
Farage also highlighted his personal experience navigating the justice system during a recent court case involving an illegal boat migrant who had threatened his life.
He described the system as crippled by inefficiency, saying that outsourcing giant Serco repeatedly delivered defendants late to court, wasting precious time and slowing proceedings. “Apparently this happens every day,” he said, adding that structural incompetence should never be used as justification for eroding foundational rights.
Labour’s proposal would eliminate jury trials for a long list of offences, including burglary, theft, assault, fraud, dangerous driving, and drug possession with intent to supply. Instead of being judged by twelve impartial citizens, defendants would have their cases decided solely by a presiding judge.
The plan has sparked fierce debate, with critics warning it concentrates too much power in the hands of the state and risks miscarriages of justice.
Justice Minister David Lammy defended the reforms before Parliament, arguing that the new system would deliver verdicts “at least 20 per cent faster than jury trials.”
He described Britain’s reliance on juries as “peculiar” when compared to many international systems, insisting that a modern justice system “is not one that clings to tradition for its own sake.”
Farage rejects that argument, insisting that trial by jury is not mere tradition but a safeguard against tyranny—one that Reform UK intends to protect at all costs.
Source Breitbart
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