Thousands of jury trials a year are set to be scrapped as the government pushed forward with controversial plans to hand over cases to judges sitting alone.

Justice Secretary David Lammy told the House of Commons on Tuesday that trial by jury will be swept away from cases involving serious criminal allegations which carry sentences of three years or less.

In their place, a judge will sit on the trial and reach verdicts on the defendant’s guilt.

He promised that the most serious cases - known as indictable only - will retain the jury system, except for some complex fraud trials which will also be overseen by a single judge.

He dubbed the new juryless trials as “swift courts” , and blamed the unprecedented justice crisis for his proposed reforms.

In London, some criminal trials

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