The Criminal Bar Association does not favour any political party, its leader has stressed after the representative body featured in a TV segment presented by shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick for news channel GB News.

CBA chair Mary Prior KC opened this week’s weekly update with a message that the association represented all criminal barristers whatever their political persuasion.

Robert Jenrick

The CBA featured in a GB News segment on the court backlog presented by Jenrick (pictured)

Source: Alamy

Prior said: ‘We do not favour any government over the opposition or vice versa. Successive governments have played their part in the destruction of the reputation of our criminal justice system which was highly respected and valued across the globe. The Labour Party did not properly fund or protect the criminal justice system when last in charge.'

The CBA featured in a GB News segment on the court backlog presented by Jenrick. ‘Rapists go FREE as Britain’s court backlog EXPLODES. Robert Jenrick investigates the devastation felt by victims whose rape cases have gone unheard after a series of delays, as the criminal justice system buckles under the pressure of an ever-expanding backlog.’

During the segment, Jenrick speaks to the CBA’s James Oliveira-Agnew on the impact of delays. The clip, posted on 23 January, has been viewed 25,000 times.

Prior said in her weekly message: ‘Knowing the history of the last 14 years, it is difficult to listen to the current cries of the Conservative Party that the Labour Party is failing in its duty to ensure that we have a functioning criminal justice system with unlimited Crown court sitting days, a first-class service for victims of crime and longer sentences for offenders for whom there should be prison spaces. We are keeping a library of such comments so that, if or when the current opposition returns to power, we can confirm that they mean what they say.’

 

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