A rebel Labour MP has threatened to trigger a by-election unless Sir Keir Starmer backs down on Government plans to scrap jury trials for many cases.

Karl Turner, the MP for Kingston upon Hull East and a former barrister, said he was ‘ashamed’ of the Prime Minister over the ‘ludicrous proposals’.

He also revealed he was warned Labour whips he would consider triggering a by-election in his seat to make a ‘principled point’.

Mr Turner won his constituency, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, by nearly 4,000 votes from Reform UK at the last general election.

But Labour’s slump in opinion polls since the 2024 contest – and Reform’s surge – will leave Nigel Farage‘s party confident of winning the seat at a possible by-election.

Mr Turner was the sole Labour MP to rebel against the Government in a House of Commons vote this week over the plans to scrap jury trials.

He broke the party whip for the first time since becoming an MP in 2010 to side with the Tories and vote against the proposals.

Mr Turner, a former shadow attorney general, has been a consistent critic of Sir Keir and Justice Secretary David Lammy since the plans were announced last year.

Karl Turner, the MP for Kingston upon HullEast and a former barrister, said he was ‘ashamed’ of the Prime Minister over the ‘ludicrous proposals’

Mr Turner, a former shadow attorney general, has been a consistent critic of Sir Keir and Justice Secretary David Lammy (pictured) since the plans to scrap jury trials were announced

Mr Lammy, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, wants to set up so-called ‘swift courts’ in England and Wales, where cases will be heard by a judge alone.

He has argued the action is necessary to slash the Crown Court backlog, which has nearly hit 80,000 cases.

But Mr Turner has said the primary cause of the crown court backlog is the restriction on the number of court sitting days, and that scrapping jury trials is an ineffective way of dealing with the issue.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, the Labour backbencher said he was ‘not fearful of having the whip removed’ after voting against the Government.

He said his own experience of being accused of a crime meant he was determined to save the right to a jury trial.

‘Many years ago I dealt in antiques,’ he said. ‘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.

‘But for my experience at the wrong end of the criminal law I wouldn’t have become a lawyer and if my dear late friend HHJ Cracknell had had his way I doubt very much that I’d have been a member of parliament.

‘That’s why I am able to say to the PM that I am ashamed of him and I am ashamed of David Lammy.

‘The Government must stop these ludicrous proposals and get on with the hard job of sorting out the criminal justice system — a system that has been badly underfunded by governments of all political persuasions for decades.’

The Government has said it will drop jury trials for offences with a likely prison sentence of three years or less.

The ability to appeal a magistrates’ court verdict to a crown court will also be limited. Ministers have put forward the plans to speed up the justice process.