Justice Secretary Dominic Raab accused barristers of “holding justice to ransom” after it emerged he was on holiday when they voted in favour of an all-out strike.
Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) in England and Wales were balloted on whether to escalate ongoing industrial action to an indefinite, uninterrupted strike.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed the Government was doing “absolutely nothing” to resolve disputes, with Mr Raab later criticising the CBA for its industrial action.
Mr Raab he wrote in the Daily Mail: “As Justice Secretary, I hear time and again that all victims truly want is the justice they deserve. My message to the CBA is simple.
“We are increasing your pay. Now your actions are only harming victims, increasing the court backlog, and hampering our efforts to make our streets safer.
“The criminal justice system deserves better.”
But the Victims’ Commissioner for London, Claire Waxman, blamed Mr Raab’s “inaction” as she warned justice will “grind to a complete standstill” and thousands of victims would be affected by the strike.
She said on Twitter: “The only ones responsible for holding ‘justice to ransom’ are those who have failed to fund a functioning justice system. Yes, it is bringing ‘heartbreak to victims’ but this falls on Dominic Raab and the Government, not the Criminal Bar Association. Time for honesty and action.”
In another post she bemoaned that Mr Raab had “refused to meet with the CBA and stop this escalating justice crisis. His inaction is causing serious harm to all victims of crime in this country”.
Mr Raab is on leave with his family in Surrey until Thursday and has not met the CBA since members embarked on industrial action in April, but junior ministers have met the group regularly.
The former foreign secretary came under fire in August last year for being on holiday in Crete during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul.
While the open-ended strike officially begins on September 5, Friday will be the last working day for barristers because alternating weeks of action are continuing in the interim and resume from August 30.
Labour MP John Healey said a breakdown of trust between the legal profession and the Government has been “brewing over a decade”, telling LBC on Tuesday: “This is a Government that has closed half the courts in England and Wales, the backlog of cases has gone up, the legal aid has been cut.
“None of these barristers go into public legal aid work to be fat cat lawyers and they need a fair settlement. Victims are being let down and justice is not being served.”
Government minister Chloe Smith urged barristers to “come back to work” as she denied cuts to legal aid had gone too far.
She told the radio station: “I would very much prefer to see the barristers at work so that victims can get their justice as quickly as possible.
“The idea of an open-ended strike does worry me because I think that’s not going to help victims get their justice any quicker. It’s only going to hinder it.”
Mr Starmer, the former director of public prosecutions, told reporters in Walthamstow, east London, on Monday: “I want to see the Government step in and actually help resolve these issues; instead of that we’ve got a Government doing absolutely nothing.”
According to MoJ figures, more than 6,000 court hearings have been disrupted a result of the dispute over conditions and Government-set fees for legal aid advocacy work.
Criminal barristers are due to receive a 15% fee rise from the end of September, meaning they will earn £7,000 more per year.
But there has been anger that the proposed pay rise will not be made effective immediately and will only apply to new cases, not those already sitting in the backlog waiting to be dealt with by courts.
