Home Secretary Jack Straw has defended his plan to limit the right to trial by jury in England and Wales as tension mounts between the House of Lords and the government over the reforms.

Defending his proposals in a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research in London, Mr Straw said that the reforms would save money, speed up justice and ensure continuing public confidence in the legal system.

The proposals, currently in the House of Lords, would end the right of a defendant to choose jury trial in all circumstances.

A group of cross-party peers is threatening to sink the bill when it goes before committee in the next fortnight.

But rejecting criticisms that the reforms would adversely affect ethnic minority defendants, Mr Straw said there was no evidence that magistrates courts treated these defendants differently to Crown Court juries.

Amd he warned peers not to defy the government's will by throwing out the Criminal Justice (Mode of Trial) Bill.

Lords opposition is 'undemocratic'

"I can't quite believe that the Lords are going to make such an undemocratic decision as to refuse to allow the elected House of Commons the right to debate this matter," he told the BBC.

An attempt to block the measure from peers he said would be "an exceptional departure from constitutional convention".

The cross-party alliance against Mr Straw in the upper house has seen former Law Lord, Lord Ackner, team up with the Conservative and Liberal Democrat front benches.

If accepted, their amendment could destroy the bill and leave the government with insufficient legislative time to reintroduce it before the next General Election.

"Convinced of case for change"

Speaking at the IPPR, Mr Straw attacked the "kneejerk reaction" from the legal community.

"I am firmly convinced that the change we are planning to make to the right of defendants to elect jury trial is the right one.

"There have been a whole strong of changes ... which though bitterly opposed by the legal profession have turned out to work without a problem."

A British invention

But Labour peer Baroness Kennedy, herself a senior barrister, has also backed the amendment and the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Thomas of Brushford said they were confident of defeating the government.

Lady Kennedy said: "We invented jury trial and we invented it because it is the best way of determining guilt or innocence.

"I feel proud of that and I think the majority of British people feel proud of that."

The planned reforms will also include a right of appeal for defendants against a decision to prevent them electing trial by jury.