Richard chaired a recent APPG on Freedom of Speech meeting about jury trials.
Speaking after the meeting, Richard said:
"As your MP my role is split between my work for you directly as my constituents (the Casework me and the team work on and which I highlight sometimes in the Good News Stories I post) and what I do as a MP in Parliament on some of the big national issues of the day.
MPs can choose what issues they get involved in within Parliament. One of the areas I’m involved in is Free Speech. In fact I am Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Freedom of Speech, which has about 50 members from across the main parties and in both House of Parliament. This is something I’m passionate about and which at times recently has felt that it is really under attack.
Recently, I chaired a meeting of the group to raise awareness of proposals to limit jury trials — an issue that strikes at the core of our justice system and which advocates of individual rights and freedoms of British citizens have been campaigning about.
We heard from Chair of the Bar Council (who represent all the barristers in England and Wales) Kirsty Brimelow KC, Labour’s Karl Turner MP who has bravely spoken out against his Party leadership on this, Conservatives Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy, and experienced Barrister Adam King of QEB Hollis Whiteman chambers, bringing together legal, parliamentary and practitioner perspectives—and a clear warning about the direction of travel the Government is trying to take us on.
Trial by jury is not an optional extra; it is a fundamental safeguard against the overreach of the state and a cornerstone of public confidence in justice. Curtailing it risks concentrating too much power in the hands of the state, weakening accountability, and undermining a centuries-old protection for defendants.
While tackling court backlogs is vitally important, sacrificing such a central principle is not the answer - and probably wont even really make a dent in the backlog anyway. We must strengthen justice, not diminish it.
I am grateful to all who contributed to a serious and timely discussion. This debate is far from over—and it is one we must get right. We won’t let the Government reduce trial by jury without a fight and groups like the APPG of Freedom of Speech, working with bodies like the Free Speech Union are part of that and part of defending your rights which int his case go back to before even Parliament existed."
