It just keeps going up and up. Today, a staggering 150 out of 532 Crown courtrooms across England and Wales are sitting empty. Despite there being no credible evidence to support his claim, when David Lammy was Justice Secretary, he tried to curb our ancient right to a trial by jury. He claimed it was the only way to bring down the backlog of 80,000 cases. Well, he was wrong. Judges, lawyers, MPs and victims of crime all warned that his reforms would undermine public trust in the criminal justice system and put judges at greater risk of physical abuse. The Institute for Government has shown that Lammy’s reforms would save just 2 per cent of Crown Court time — not the 20 per cent ministers claimed. During the Makerfield by-election, our now Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, called jury trials a “lynchpin of a fair society” and urged Keir Starmer to “pause” the planned reforms. Well, he’s the boss now. Burnham must put his money where his mouth is: get the courts sitting and axe this authoritarian plan.