Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Witherden Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We are not abolishing jury trials, as the right hon. Gentleman knows. I have worked with women and girls who have been victims of sexual violence and rape, and have waited a very, very long time for their cases to go to court. Many of them drop out because of the wait. They have described to me personally the mental anguish that they go through when their case cannot be heard for years, and when they are told of adjournments time and again. I am not prepared to look them in the eye any longer and not do something about it—we owe it to them.

This is about getting the balance right. We are not abolishing jury trials. About 3% of cases go to jury trial, as the right hon. Gentleman very well knows, while 97% do not. After these changes, it will be 2.25%. That is the difference between the policy that we are advancing and the policy as it now is. We are not abolishing jury trials, and I am not prepared to see victims of violence against women and girls repeatedly let down. That is what happened for 14 long years, and it is not good enough. I set my face against that and I am doing something about it.

[Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr) (Lab)]

Q10. I spent 20 years as a secondary school teacher in Wales. We worked hard. Labour has given them the biggest upgrade of rights in a generation—rights that millions of us fought hard to win—but the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) wants to chuck it all in the bin. Does the Prime Minister stand by these fundamental workers’ rights and agree that only a vote for Labour in May will enshrine them?

[The Prime Minister]

I am very proud of our Employment Rights Act 2025. It delivers strong rights and protections, including for all our brilliant school staff. My hon. Friend is right: Reform Members would rip up those protections. They have nothing to offer but grievance and division, and they have no judgment: just like the Leader of the Opposition, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) has said that we should do “all we can” to support the US strikes. He said:

“I make that perfectly, perfectly clear.”

It was perfectly, perfectly clear that he got it completely wrong, and perfectly, perfectly clear that he is now desperately trying to U-turn. Absolutely no judgment: not fit to be Prime Minister.