David Lammy, Labour’s new Justice Secretary, is living dangerously. The leak of plans for an overhaul of the jury system to expedite court cases and address years of under-investment and delays has drawn an unforgiving spotlight onto his argument and political modus operandi.

It has detonated a powerful backlash from senior barristers who have accused Lammy of misrepresenting the statistics about rape cases collapsing in a bid to push through his proposal to remove some rights to trial by jury for less serious offences.

Lammy’s claim that 60 per cent of cases are being withdrawn, due to witnesses falling away or due to exhaustion on the part of the accuser at waiting for trial, has been disputed.

Senior legal sources have instead said that a high proportion of rape cases collapse befo

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