Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is under intense pressure to prevent the changes (Image: Getty)
Labour is under intense pressure to prevent new sentencing guidelines from “enshrining anti-white and anti-Christian bias into our criminal justice system”. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has vowed to take legal action after the Sentencing Council told judges to consider an offender’s ethnicity when they hand down punishments.
Mr Jenrick accused the Sentencing Council of creating a “two-tier” justice system after new rules were sent to magistrates on Wednesday morning. It opened the door to white criminals being jailed for longer than offenders from an ethnic minority or faith-based community group.
Robert Jenrick has blasted the changes and proposed to take legal action (Image: Getty)
Mr Jenrick said: “I will be challenging this sentencing guidance in the courts on the grounds it enshrines anti-white and anti-Christian bias into our criminal justice system.
“And if Labour won’t amend the law to prevent this, the will. There are few more important principles than equality under the law – we will fight tooth and nail to defend it.
“The Justice Secretary had a senior representative at the meeting this two-tier guidance was approved. She’s either completely clueless or she and two-tier Keir support the changes and are desperately trying to save face in response to public outrage.”
The hugely controversial new guidance said pre-sentence reports, which are designed to “tailor” sentences most appropriate to an offender’s history and background – for example to deal with their drug addiction or homelessness – should be prepared if a criminal has declared they are “transgender”.
It tells judges that criminals “from an ethnic minority, cultural minority and/or faith minority community” should be specifically considered for pre-sentence reports, meaning they could be considered differently to white counterparts.
Explaining the changes to magistrates, the Sentencing Council said: “A pre-sentence report can be pivotal in helping the court decide whether to impose a custodial sentence or community order.”
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood responded to the alarming warning by telling MPs: “As someone who is from an ethnic minority background myself, I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law, for anyone of any kind.
“And there will never be a two-tier sentencing approach under my watch”.
Downing Street said on Thursday: “She will be writing to the Sentencing Council to register her displeasure and to recommend reversing this guidance. That’s a move that the Prime Minister welcomes.
“As we’ve said before, Parliament will always have the power to determine the minimum sentence people should face for their crimes.
“It’s for independent judges to decide individual sentences. They must work within the laws set by Parliament.”
Defending the proposals, Lord Justice William Davis, chairman of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, said: “One of the purposes of the revised imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline is to make sure that the courts have the most comprehensive information available so that they can impose a sentence that is the most appropriate for the offender and the offence and so more likely to be effective.
“The guideline emphasises the crucial role played by pre-sentence reports (PSRs) in this process and identifies particular cohorts for whom evidence suggests PSRs might be of particular value to the court.
“The reasons for including groups vary but include evidence of disparities in sentencing outcomes, disadvantages faced within the criminal justice system and complexities in circumstances of individual offenders that can only be understood through an assessment.
“PSRs provide the court with information about the offender; they are not an indication of sentence.
“Sentences are decided by the independent judiciary, following sentencing guidelines and taking into account all the circumstances of the individual offence and the individual offender.”
Under the new changes, pregnant women should not be sent to jail unless it is “unavoidable”.
The new guidance, which comes into force on April 1, says courts “should avoid the possibility of an offender navigating the risks associated with pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period in custody unless the imposition of a custodial sentence is unavoidable”.