JUSTICE Secretary Shabana Mahmood was slammed for interfering in judicial independence today after she blocked new sentencing guidelines designed to reduce racial disparities.

Rebuking the minister, left MP Diane Abbott said there have been multiple reports highlighitng how black and ethnic minority people are treated unfairly by the justice system.

She said: “There is a reason why the Sentencing Council is independent. It was made a statutory independent body to avoid even the appearance of ministerial interference.

“This is not the United States. Our political system, our judicial system, are entirely separate.”

Bowing to right-wing pressure, however, Ms Mahmood announced a pause to new guidelines asking judges to take into account the ethnicity or minority religion of offenders before passing sentence.

The proposals had led to media denunciations of “two-tier justice,” ignoring evident discrimination in sentencing, a problem to which Ms Mahmood offered no answers.

Instead, she told MPs that she was bringing in a Bill to prohibit the council from making guidelines about pre-sentence reports referring to characteristics such as race or religion.