LABOUR is trying to reverse sentencing guidelines aimed at protecting black people from unfair treatment in the criminal justice system, it emerged yesterday.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is to write to the independent Sentencing Council, urging it to reverse guidance advising judges to take into account the ethnicity or faith of the defendant before deciding whether or not to imprison.

Official figures show that people from ethnic minorities consistently receive longer sentences than white people for comparable offences.

Stand up to Racism co-convener Weyman Bennett slammed the move, calling it a “new low for this Labour government.  We must not follow the Trump playbook.”

Zita Holbourne from anti-racist campaign group Barac said: “Black and brown people are more likely to receive a custodial sentence than their white counterparts and institutional racism impacts on them through the criminal justice system.

“Pre-sentence reports can be crucial in understanding the circumstances of each individual prior to sentencing.  They benefit everybody — not just black and brown people, as suggested by government and politicians — in ensuring all factors are properly taken into consideration.

“Any steps and measures that can help in avoiding bias discrimination should be welcomed and embraced,” she said.

Ms Mahmood was acting after predictable Tory braying about “two-tier justice” — as if that was not already the case.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “If Shabana Mahmood doesn’t want a two-tier criminal justice system, she should change the law and the Conservatives will back her.”

And hard-right shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick claimed that the guidelines were biased “against straight white men” and that the justice system would have an “anti-white and anti-Christian bias.”

Ms Mahmood is to write to the council to “register my displeasure” and urge a reversal of the guidelines.

“As someone who is from an ethnic-minority background myself, I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law, for anyone of any kind,” she said.

The guidelines advise judges and magistrates to get a pre-sentence report before sentencing someone of an ethnic or faith minority — alongside other groups such as young adults, abuse survivors and pregnant women.