THE ban on farmers driving tractors down Whitehall today is not an example of two-tier policing, according to the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister.

Darren Jones told GB News: “No. We’re updating the laws to be able to make sure that police have the powers to deal with cumulative and repetitive, disruptive protests wherever they are in the country.

“I’m not entirely across the detail of what’s been decided here today, but my guess would be that they need to keep the road between Downing Street and Parliament clear, because, of course, you’ll know the Chancellor comes out of Number 11 and then needs to get to Parliament pretty quickly in order to deliver her budget statement.

“So it may be just a logistical thing, as opposed to a protest-based thing.”

On reports that the government is considering scrapping jury trials for most crimes, he said: “The first thing to say is the government hasn’t made a decision one way or the other. I think there’s been a leak of some policy suggestions about how we deal with the backlog in the problem.

Darren Jones GB News 26:11.jpeg

“There’s around 80,000 people waiting for a trial. That’s important, because criminals need to be sent to prison or be given punishment if they’ve broken the law. Innocent people need to be able to prove their innocence, and victims need to be reassured that the criminal justice system will bring them justice.

“At the moment, there are too many people waiting, so it’s right that the Ministry of Justice is looking at how we tackle those backlogs, and look, you’re right, the Magna Carta produces those pretty fundamental constitutional principles about a right to a fair trial, but also a timely trial in the Magna Carta as well.

‘We can’t have people waiting for years and years before justice is served or their innocence is proven.

“So, as I say, the government hasn’t made a decision one way or the other at the moment, but it’s right that they’re looking at how they fix the backlog that we’ve inherited.”