LABOUR is calling for Justice Secretary Robert Buckland to resign if he cannot reverse devastatingly low rape conviction rates within a year. 

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy accused the minister of shedding crocodile tears when he apologised to rape survivors on Friday for failing them after conviction rates fell to a record low. 

A government report published last week found that just 3 per cent of reported rapes in England and Wales resulted in a prosecution in 2019-20, a drop of 13 per cent compared with 2015 figures. 

In his apology following the review, Mr Buckland promised to deliver “system and culture change” and accepted that cuts to the legal system were partly to blame for plummeting conviction rates.

But Mr Lammy said: “The Justice Secretary’s crocodile tears will mean nothing if the government fails to reverse its disastrous failure of rape victims.

“The Conservatives’ decade of cuts to the justice system has let rapists and other violent criminals off the hook while denying victims justice.

“Rape convictions and prosecutions have more than halved in three years. If he cannot reverse these figures within a year of his apology, the Justice Secretary should do the honourable thing and resign.”

Proposals outlined in the review to improve rape survivors’ experience of the legal system include allowing claimants to pre-record video evidence to spare them the trauma of cross-examination in court. 

Pressed on whether he would resign if he didn’t meet the target, Mr Buckland said today: “The idea that somehow a resignation or political pressure should be brought to bear on independent prosecutorial decisions is not only bad politics but it’s actually dangerous. I’m not going to engage in that level of debate.”