Politics
Labour justice minister denies claims of two-tier policing in Britain
The MP for Finchley and Golders Green was speaking at a Jewish Labour Movement conference
January 12, 2025 19:09
The MP for Finchley and Golders Green was speaking at a Jewish Labour Movement conference
January 12, 2025 19:09Justice Minister Sarah Sackman has rejected claims that Britain has a “two-tier” justice and policing system, saying that “we have an independent, operationally independent, prosecute, prosecution service that does its work without fear or favour.”
Speaking at a conference organised by the Jewish Labour Movement, in a session on the crisis in the criminal justice system, Sackman was asked by the JC how the government would avoid perceptions of two-tier policing and justice.
Reference was made to the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service in 2022, to the outrage of many in the Jewish community, not to prosecute members of a pro-Palestine convoy who chanted rape and death threats driving through a heavily Jewish part of north London.
In September, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said that the early release of violent criminals to free up prison space, combined with the rapid persecution of rioters and those who posted malicious communications online in the aftermath of the riots following the killing of three girls in Southport in July was an example of two-tier policing and justice.
Sackman, who was appointed as Justice Minister in December last year, hit back at the suggestion.
“I don't accept that we have a two-tier justice system, and actually those that are peddling that accusation against the Prime Minister, against the government, need to take a long, hard look at themselves. We have an independent, operationally independent, prosecute, prosecution service that does its work without fear or favour.”
Sackman went on: “What should have been about the victims, those little girls, became about the worst kind of thuggery and racist criminal behaviour. And I think the swift justice that we saw there was an example of the criminal justice system operating at its best.”
On threats facing the Jewish community, she said that during her time as Solicitor General she signed off on consent for prosecution against “those who perpetrate hate crimes, those who glorify Hamas and other terrorist organisations on our streets”.
But she went on to say: “We cannot fight antisemitism and extremism in a broken criminal justice system, and that's why we have to fix it, not least to keep our community safe.”
During the session, a conversation with former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald KC, Sackman also sounded alarm that victims of rape and serious sexual assault are walking away from trials because lengthy of delays to court proceedings as a result of lengthy backlogs: “They're saying, ‘Do you know what? I'd rather walk away than have this looming over me when I am told that justice if it's ever going to come, is at least a couple of years away’”.
Earlier in the session she told the crowd: “The consequence of the policies of austerity, the death by a thousand cuts that the justice system has experienced over the last decade or so, becomes apparent and all too real for people” which she also said was “a massive detriment to the wider fabric and cohesion of our society”.
Sackman also lamented the “dire” state of the court system which she said had been caused by Conservative cuts and the disrepair many buildings were left in.
Sackman was first elected in July last year, winning the marginal – and heavily Jewish – seat of Finchley and Golders Green from the Conservatives.
Unusually, very shortly after her election, Sackman was appointed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to a ministerial position as Solicitor General.