“I get it when he says to me: ‘Listen I’m 24/7 on international and domestic issues. Just give me a bit of breathing space.’ It’s a fair thing,” says Turner, the dyed-in-the-wool, plain-talking Labour MP for Kingston Upon Hull East, who describes himself as a friend of Sir Keir.
“But actually, my response to him is: ‘This is not my fault. This is your fault. You’ve let this happen and you need to deal with your Justice Secretary for getting it so badly wrong.’” To say Turner is angry is an understatement. The former shadow solicitor general feels “betrayed” by the “cynical” plan to axe thousands of jury trials which was not in Labour’s manifesto and is, he says, “unjust, unworkable and unpopular”.
