Keir Starmer is facing open rebellion from within his own ranks after a Labour MP warned he is prepared to resign and trigger a by election rather than back plans to curtail jury trials.
Karl Turner, a former shadow attorney general and practising criminal barrister, said he would quit the Commons to force a public vote unless the Prime Minister abandons proposals to remove jury trials for thousands of defendants.
The Hull East MP defied the Labour whip for the first time since entering Parliament in 2010, voting against the plans and delivering a stinging rebuke to Starmer, telling him he “ought to be ashamed of himself”.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Turner made clear he is not intimidated by party discipline, saying he was “not fearful of having the whip removed” and warning he would consider forcing a by election in a marginal seat vulnerable to Reform UK.
Turner was the only Labour MP to vote against the proposals. He said his stance is rooted in personal experience, arguing that jury trials are a vital safeguard for the innocent.
He said: “Many years ago I dealt in antiques. I bought items that turned out to be stolen unbeknown to me. It can happen. It did with me.
“I was arrested, interviewed by the police, charged and remanded in custody for court.
“On the advice of my legal team, I was advised – on the strength of the evidence – to elect for a jury trial.
“By the time the case came before the court it was fairly obvious that there wasn’t enough evidence for the matter to go before the jury, so it was thrown out.
“The prosecution offered no evidence.
“But the late judge His Hon Judge Tom Cracknell, who much later became a good friend of mine, discharged me from the court with a warning to ‘be more careful in the future’.”
He added: “When I say this matters to me, it really matters to me.”
Turner won Hull East in 2024 with a majority of 3,920 over Reform, a fact that underlines the political risk Starmer is now running by pushing ahead regardless of dissent from his own MPs.
He confirmed he had sent Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, a blunt text message telling him “he ought to be ashamed of himself”.
Turner has also turned his fire on David Lammy, saying he was “completely ashamed” of the Justice Secretary.
“Lammy is the Justice Secretary who’s fallen for the civil servants’ trick,” Turner said. “Every single justice secretary for the last two decades has been asked by officials to do away with some jury trials, but David Lammy is the fool who fell for the trick.”
Under the Government’s plans, jury trials would be scrapped for offences carrying a likely sentence of three years or less, while the right to appeal a magistrates’ court decision to the crown court would also be restricted. Ministers claim the changes are needed to speed up the justice system.
Turner said Starmer’s leadership is already faltering, predicting the proposals could be defeated if Labour MPs grow a spine.
“If they’re daft enough to put this legislation forward… I’m confident we’ll defeat it,” he said. “I think there are enough others.”
The episode exposes a Prime Minister increasingly isolated from his own party, forcing through authoritarian justice reforms while Labour MPs openly question his judgment and integrity.
