David Lammy announces ‘swift and fair' plan to get justice for victims

Transcript

00:00Well, I'm very grateful to the shadow Justice Secretary, and I am a little surprised that in his tirade, he never once mentioned victims.

00:15Not once. Not once in his clip did he talk about the people waiting in that backlog.

00:23He's boasted about himself as an armchair historian.

00:28Can I just give him a history lesson, Mr Speaker?

00:32In 2019, sitting days in the Crown Court were cut by almost 15%.

00:41They oversaw a 12% reduction in Crown Court trials.

00:48And many of us remember, over those 14 years of austerity, the magistrates' courts that closed in local communities,

00:57the Crown Courts that closed in local communities under his watch.

01:03It was a political decision, not my words, the words of the senior presiding judge of England and Wales.

01:09I wonder how he'll try to blame the pandemic for that decision.