Geoffrey Robertson KC, founding head of Doughty Street Chambers — the London barristers' set that also counted Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Attorney General Richard Hermer, and Justice Secretary David Lammy among its members — has published a sweeping condemnation of the government's courts and tribunals bill, calling its plans to roughly halve the number of jury trials in England and Wales "a betrayal of the values for which Labour purports to stand." In a more than 9,000-word essay released on the Bar Council's website to coincide with the bill's committee stage, Robertson argued that trial by jury serves as a vital check on state power and that the court backlog it seeks to address was caused by spending cuts, not by juries themselves. The Ministry of Justice defended the reforms, arguing that investment and modernisation alone are insufficient to clear a backlog that has left victims without timely justice.