Labour faced fresh accusations of a ‘two-tier justice system’ on Wednesday night amid astonishing moves to give minorities special treatment in the courts.
All ethnic minorities and transgender people convicted of a crime should be treated differently under measures due to come into force in less than four weeks.
The Conservatives said it could open the door to softer sentences for minorities, and risked making the criminal courts ‘anti-white and anti-Christian’.
And it reignited a row from last summer, during the riots in the wake of the Southport murders, of various groups being treated differently by the justice system.
The new rules, distributed to magistrates and judges by the Sentencing Council yesterday, say it must ‘normally be considered necessary’ for the courts to commission a ‘pre-sentence report’ about criminals if they come from ‘an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community’.
The move, which came following lobbying by the respective groups, would also apply to all women and transgender criminals, as well as others such as young adults and addicts.
Pre-sentence reports often set out reasons why a jail sentence would be detrimental for an offender.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said the move – which takes effect on April 1 – would ‘make a custodial sentence less likely’.
Mr Jenrick said: ‘Sir Keir Starmer sneered at people who said we have a two-tier justice system. But here we have it in black and white.
‘This is an inversion of the rule of the law. We now have two-tier justice under ‘Two-Tier Kier’.’
The MP added: ‘Under this guidance our justice system is set to have an anti-white and anti-Christian bias. There is blatant discrimination against straight white men.’
Tory minister Neil O’Brien said on X, formerly Twitter: ‘What the actual hell – this is just raw two-tier justice.’
After initially appearing to deny the effect of the guidelines in the Commons, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood later insisted she would attempt to reverse the measures.
The guidelines completely undermined Labour’s flat denial of a two-tier justice system, leading sources to say Ms Mahmood was left ‘incandescent’.
David Spencer, of think-tank Policy Exchange and a former detective chief inspector at the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘We shouldn’t be surprised that so many people are convinced there is a two-tier justice system when judges are told to apply completely different standards for women, ethnic minorities and transgender people.’
After being confronted about the changes in the Commons on Wednesday, the Justice Secretary issued a statement expressing her ‘displeasure’ at the Sentencing Council’s measures.
‘Today’s updated guidelines do not represent my views or the views of this government,’ she said.
‘I will be writing to the Sentencing Council to register my displeasure and to recommend reversing this change to guidance.
‘As someone who is from an ethnic minority background myself, I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law, for anyone of any kind.
‘There will never be a two-tier sentencing approach under my watch.’
Ms Mahmood insisted the Sentencing Council, an official body which draws up rules which must be followed by judges and magistrates, is ‘entirely independent’.
However, Mr Jenrick accused her of ‘trying to play dumb’ because Ms Mahmood’s senior officials attended meetings when the changes were decided upon.
The plan was discussed at sessions on December 20 and January 24 – attended by Ms Mahmood’s ‘personal representative’ Claire Fielder, the Ministry of Justice’s director of offender policy.
Minutes of January’s meeting say: ‘Having agreed to various final minor amendments throughout the guideline, the council approved the final content in full and signed off the guideline for publication in March.’
It bought back the ‘two-tier’ accusations that came, amid repugnant scenes of rioting, when critics accused the police of acting more harshly against white, far-Right protesters than they had against other demonstrators, such as those aligned with Black Lives Matter.
Reform party leader Nigel Farage said at the time that the ‘impression of two-tier policing has become widespread’.
His remarks were rejected by Sir Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley even grabbed a reporter’s microphone and knocked it to the ground when he was asked about the claim – though later apologised.
Sentencing Council chairman Lord Justice William Davis said: ‘The guideline emphasises the crucial role played by pre-sentence reports (PSRs) in this process and identifies particular cohorts for whom evidence suggests PSRs might be of particular value to the court.
‘The reasons for including groups vary but include evidence of disparities in sentencing outcomes, disadvantages faced within the criminal justice system and complexities in circumstances of individual offenders that can only be understood through an assessment.
‘PSRs provide the court with information about the offender; they are not an indication of sentence.’