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The MP Karl Turner has lost the Labour whip after making a series of interventions criticising Keir Starmer and No 10, especially on changes to jury trials.
A Labour source said Turner had been informed by the chief whip, Jonathan Reynolds, that he had had the whip suspended because of his conduct. Turner denied he had been informed by the whips and said he had learned about his suspension from journalists.
The decision is understood to have been prompted in part by an interview given by Turner, the MP for Hull East, to Jody McIntyre, a campaigner who stood at the 2024 elections against Labour’s Jess Phillips.
Turner wrote on X: “I am being told that I have had the whip suspended but I have not had any notification from the whips about this. It seems journalists have been told but I have not.”
A Labour source denied that the suspension was due to Turner’s opposition to the judicial changes and said there had been complaints about his conduct online as well as in parliament from other MPs.
Turner, who had been shadow solicitor general but was not given a government role, was opposed to plans from the Ministry of Justice to cut the number of jury trials and introduce new judge-only courts.
Turner said the changes were deeply misguided and said he had at least 60 MPs prepared to vote against them, though he abstained at the second reading of the bill in the hope of prompting amendments during the parliamentary process.
He cited his own experience of the criminal justice system, having been charged with handling stolen goods, a case that was thrown out due to lack of evidence.
Turner has previously said he was on a “conduct warning” from the whips and suggested he would be minded to spark a byelection if he was suspended.
He has been explicitly critical of No 10 in recent months, claiming it was briefing against him, especially former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney. He called McSweeney “McSwindle” online and suggested he staged the theft of a mobile phone.
In the interview with McIntyre, Turner said McSweeney was “still running the job” in the background and that several MPs were “very angry” about the situation.
McIntyre stood against Phillips in Birmingham Yardley on a platform criticising Labour’s approach to Israeli attacks on Gaza. Phillips won by 700 votes.
On the night of the election, Phillips criticised the conduct of her opponent after heckles during her victory speech, and alleged that one Labour campaigner had her tyres slashed on election day. As the heckling continued, she said: “I see we’re going to continue with the class we had during the campaign … I didn’t bring my children here tonight because I knew this would happen and they deserve better.”
Turner said he did not know McIntyre had stood against Phillips when he gave him an interview and that he had contacted McIntyre to correct some of the posts on X he had made subsequently.
“I was asked to give an interview with a guy who said he was an independent journalist. I had no idea he stood against Jess Phillips and I’d never have given an interview to him if I’d have known who he was,” he said.
“I apologised to Jess about it as I know that in that campaign she had a terrible time. I don’t regret what I said about McSweeney but I didn’t know that the guy I was speaking to was the candidate who stood against her.”
A number of Conservative MPs criticised the suspension and said Turner was being targeted for his opposition to the jury trial reforms. The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, posted on X: “This Labour Government is SO authoritarian.”
The Tory MP Neil Shastri-Hurst said: “If true, it is sad to see the government punish an MP for standing up for jury trials – a fundamental safeguard in our justice system. Karl’s vocal support of juries shows real conviction, something our politics should reward.”
A Labour source said Turner had been informed of his suspension by email and denied that journalists had been told the news before the MP. The Jewish Labour Movement issued a statement backing the suspension, saying the interview with McIntyre was “crossing a red line.”
