A KC who represented victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal in the public inquiry has quit her post on the Legal Services Board to fight justice secretary David Lammy's plans to restrict the right to a jury trial.
Flora Page KC, who practised as a solicitor before moving to the bar, announced yesterday she was resigning as a board member for the oversight regulator with immediate effect 'to speak freely' about the Courts and Tribunals Bill.
The LSB is sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. After watching Lammy and courts minister Sarah Sackman during the bill's second reading on Tuesday, Page said she could not stand by silently 'and let the lord chancellor rip the heart out of the constitutional principle' of the rule of law.
Page felt the bill was being rushed through parliament 'to give its opponents as little time as possible to organise' and there was 'now a short window of opportunity to do everything I can to prevent this power grab'. The rule of law had now become something sold as part of 'UK plc', Page said. 'Rich oligarchs or multinational companies are welcome to come and settle their disputes here for a princely sum, but if ordinary people report a crime, the chances of justice are slim to none'.
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The backlog has soared in recent years because of sitting day restrictions, she added. If curtailing jury trials was about reducing the Crown court backlog, the bill would contain a 'sunset clause', she suggested.
Page said victims needed justice, not convictions regardless of justice, and justice needed juries. 'The Right Honourable Keir Starmer KCB KC MP knows this, after his years as director of public prosecutions, and yet he has sanctioned this attack on a power and a freedom which is rightly given to all the people of this country. This act of tyranny is a sign that the government has completely lost its way. I now feel I must say this publicly.'
The public bill committee will begin line-by-line scutiny of the legislation on 25 March and report by 28 April. It is now welcoming written evidence.
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