A prominent critic of the Government’s policy of restricting jury trials has had the Labour whip suspended.
Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
MP Karl Turner, a prominent critic of the Government’s policy of restricting jury trials, has had the Labour whip suspended. It means he has been kicked out of the Labour Parliamentary Party.
Mr Turner previously said he was not expecting to lose the party whip but that he did “not care” if he did. The MP voted with the Conservatives on an opposition day motion opposing Sir Keir Starmer‘s jury trial reforms in January.
Losing the whip means he is no longer a Labour MP and instead has become an independent. In theory, Sir Keir could allow him back into the Labour group in the future. Mr Turner said he has not been formally notified of his removal.
The Kingston upon Hull East MP wrote on X: “I am being told that I have had the whip suspended but I have not had any notification from the whips about this. It seems journalists have been told but I have not.”
But it has been reported that Mr Turner is said to have been emailed on Tuesday and told he was having the Labour whip suspended.
The decision was said to have been taken after multiple previous warnings.
Earlier this month, Turner told Times Radio: “I’m not going to be threatened with suspension. I’m already on a conduct warning for having the audacity to say that these proposals are ludicrous. I’m not going to be bullied around. If my parliamentary Labour party chief, Prime Minister, leader of the party or whatever else doesn’t want me in the party anymore, fine. I don’t mind walking and causing a by-election.”
Speaking in January after voting against the Government, the former criminal barrister: “I do not expect to lose the party whip – but if I do, I do not care.
“I invite them to take the whip from me if they want – at least I believe in something. If they want to take the whip off someone who believes in something, then good luck to them.”
In a brutal attack on his own party colleagues last week, Mr Turner warned he was ready to work with opposition politicians to defeat the Government.
He said Justice Secretary David Lammy was determined to prove he was “the big strong guy” after the Government was forced to u-turn over other unpopular policies.
Mr Turner said: “The reality is, and I’m ashamed to have to say this, egos have got in the way.
“Politicians in my party, in government, have been in situations where they have lost. The rebellions have been too much.
“And I’m afraid David Lammy has thought, I’m going to prove that I’m the big strong guy here, and I’m going to get something that is clearly unpopular through.
“And the truth is that he’s going to do his best.”
Highlighting abstentions by Labour MPs in previous votes on the issue, Mr Turner said: “But I’m confident, with that number of abstentions, that we can amend the worst excesses. But we have to be realistic, and we have to work with the opposition benches, and anybody for that matter.”
As well as leading Labour resistance on the jury trial issue, Mr Turner questioned the circumstances around the theft of the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney’s mobile phone and with it potentially messages to Lord Peter Mandelson.
He called the former aide to Sir Keir Starmer “McSwindle”.