Robert Jenrick will pledge to axe the Sentencing Council to stamp out 'two-tier justice' in Britain.

The Shadow Justice Secretary has the quango in his sights after it recommended this year that courts consider differential treatment based on factors such as race and ethnicity.

Mr Jenrick, who is seen by many at the Tories' annual conference in Manchester as the most likely candidate to be its next leader, is also expected to criticise the role of 'activist judges' – and take a swipe at Labour's attorney general, Lord Hermer.

He will warn that the Sentencing Council – set up by the last Labour government to provide guidance on sentencing – is 'not fit for purpose', adding: 'Never again can the British people face the prospect of two-tier justice.'

This year, it issued guidance recommending that judges take into account factors such as ethnicity or gender when deciding whether to ask for pre-sentence reports.

Mr Jenrick and others said the guidance could lead to defendants facing a lesser punishment on the basis of their ethnicity. 

The Sentencing Council was eventually forced to back down by the then justice secretary Shabana Mahmood, who launched a review into its future.

Ms Mahmood said she would not stand for 'any differential treatment before the law'.

Mr Jenrick will pledge on Tuesday to go further, saying: 'We are slipping into a two-tier nightmare under Keir Starmer.

'All too frequently the law is not applied equally. No more. Every single person in this country must be treated exactly the same, regardless of their background.'

He will also broaden his attack on the Sentencing Council, saying that for years it has undermined Parliament by recommending shorter jail terms for offenders.

Mr Jenrick will cite a series of serious offences for which it has 'watered down' sentences approved by Parliament. The Sentencing Council recommends sentences of up to six years for domestic burglary, compared with a maximum of 14 years in law.

The offence of assaulting an emergency worker is recommended to carry a sentence of less than a year, despite Parliament doubling the maximum to two years in 2018. 

The quango suggests sentences for animal cruelty should not exceed three and a half years for animal cruelty, even in the most sadistic cases. MPs voted for a five-year maximum.

'The public are sick of voting for tougher sentences and getting the opposite,' Mr Jenrick will say. 

'So in future the justice secretary, accountable to Parliament, will be responsible for setting sentencing policy. No longer will an unaccountable quango be able to subvert the will of the British people for criminals to be properly punished.'

Allies of Tory leader Kemi Badenoch have been on alert for signs of disloyalty from Mr Jenrick over fears that he could try to topple her within months. 

But he has told friends he will be on his 'best behaviour' at the conference to avoid accusations of disloyalty.

He dismissed any idea of a pact with Reform as a 'fool's errand', adding: 'We should be spending every waking hour being the best – better than Reform, better than Labour, better than the Lib Dems.'

Labour called his plan to axe the Sentencing Council a 'gimmick'.