Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. The government should scrap the right of defendants to choose ...

Mr Straw, who served as Home Secretary under Tony Blair and Justice Secretary in Gordon Brown’s government, first proposed the radical change while in government. But it was torpedoed by a ...

Home Secretary Jack Straw said it was being ended because "it is arbitrary, unfair and ineffective and has penalised genuine cases, divided families and unnecessarily increased the administrative ...