Nick Timothy, the Conservative shadow justice secretary accused the government of “rushing” the proposals through “at breakneck speed”. He brandished the government plans as “hopelessly confused” in a speech to the House of Commons as he claimed Whitehall officials had been “itching to do this for years.”

Welcoming the changes the justice secretary David Lammy said: “The status quo of the broken system does produce injustice, and the burden of that delay is not evenly shared.” He pointed to statistics showing ethnic minority Britons are 43% more likely to be victims of crime adding: “There is nothing progressive about a young, working-class black or white man sitting in a cell for months on end – no judge, no jury, no end in sight.”

The controversial move has attracted opposition from lawyers, over 3,000 demanding the government drop the plans. In a letter to the Prime Minister they said there was no evidence the plan would do anything to address delays in criminal courts.

It drew criticism from within Labour with Karl Turner MP describing it as “unworkable, unjust, unpopular and unnecessary”. Another Labour MP, Charlotte Nichols accused Mr Lammy of using victims as a “cudgel” to drive through reforms to the courts system, as she spoke of her own experience of being raped.

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She said she felt experiences like hers were being “weaponised” and “used for rhetorical misdirection” by supporters of the bill. Opponents of the change said they would seek to amend the bill later in its passage through parliament.

Mr Lammy said he was trying to create a system “fit for the 21st century.”

The bill will now proceed to the next stage of becoming law, with critics such as Mr Turner saying they are “more confident now than ever I was that the worst parts of this Bill, will be defeated at amendment stage.”