Lammy

Justice secretary’s white paper will overhaul youth justice rules and could end lifelong criminal records for under-18sDavid Lammy has promised to cut the number of children kept in jail while they await trial by a quarter as part of an overhaul of youth justice rules that could also end lifelong criminal records for under-18s.The justice secretary is publishing a white paper on Monday that he says will reduce the number of children ending up in jail – something he admits was his greatest fear growing up in Tottenham in the 1980s. Continue reading...

Energy secretary says both he and the then foreign secretary were worried making Mandelson US envoy was riskyUK politics live – latest updatesEd Miliband and David Lammy discussed concerns about the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to Washington which they feared could “blow up”, the energy secretary has revealed.Miliband said he had spoken to Lammy, who was foreign secretary at the time Mandelson was given the Washington post, with both expressing reservations. Continue reading...

Exclusive: deputy PM says UK will not join Iran conflict despite Trump’s sometimes ‘incomprehensible’ social-media barbsDonald Trump’s insults towards Keir Starmer are “small and petty” and designed to put pressure on the prime minister to change his position on Iran, David Lammy has said, as he insisted the UK would not get dragged into the conflict.The deputy prime minister argued the US president should be able to “disagree agreeably” with allies rather than publishing attacks on social media, and that US actions had “made things worse, not better” as far as global instability was concerned. Continue reading...

Exclusive: deputy prime minister says it is ‘inexplicable’ top civil servant kept Downing Street in darkKeir Starmer would have blocked Peter Mandelson from serving as the UK’s ambassador to Washington had he known he failed security vetting, David Lammy has said, as he attempted to shore up the prime minister amid damaging fallout from the row.In his first public comments on the vetting affair, Lammy said it was “inexplicable” that Oliver Robbins, the former top civil servant who was forced out of the Foreign Office this week, had opted to leave Downing Street in the dark over the outcome. Continue reading...

In letter to justice secretary, groups say judge-led decisions more likely to be influenced by bias than those made by 12 random people Thirty organisations representing victims of violence against women and girls (VAWG) have written to the justice secretary, David Lammy, urging him to drop plans to significantly reduce the number of jury trials.The groups said that the proposals, which will affect court cases in England and Wales, will deepen mistrust in the justice system among victims and distract from measures designed to reduce offending. Continue reading...