The judiciary last night set itself on a collision course with the Lord Chancellor when an unprecedented “council of war” unanimously backed demands for constitutional safeguards to protect the position of judges under the Ministry of Justice.

A crisis meeting convened to discuss the new ministry, attended by judges of all ranks, gave “full backing” to the Lord Chief Justice and other senior judges who want safeguards to protect “the independence of the judiciary” and “proper administration of justice”.

The hour-long unprecedented meeting of the Judges’ Council as well as judges who make up the “judicial executive board” issued a brief expression of support, pending a full statement of their position today. They are expected to stop short of issuing an ultimatum to Lord Falconer of Thoroton, but their stance is a blunt and uncompromising message that they intend to press on with the fight to secure their position.

One source at the meeting said: “The mood was very serious. Everyone fully backs the stance taken by the Lord Chief Justice and other senior judges and are completely behind them.”

In one week’s time the dispute comes before Parliament when judges will deliver their views to MPs when they come before the Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee.

The creation last week of the new Ministry of Justice has aroused widespread concern among the judiciary who only agreed to support the change if they secured a number of safeguards to their constitutional position.

In particular they are seeking statutory protection for the courts’ budget; and – if the Lord Chancellor wants them to tailor sentences according to prison resources – they want that to be enshrined in legislation.

So far Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the new Justice Secretary as well as Lord Chancellor, has not acceded to their requests and intensive efforts to reach a solution through a working party of judges and his officials have failed.

Judges fear that with prisons and the probation service now part of the same ministry as the courts and legal aid, the funding for the justice system is at risk of being eroded by the demands of a rising prison population.

They have given warning that they risk coming under pressure to jail fewer offenders because of a shortage of prison spaces; and they also say that their independence will be compromised because the Lord Chancellor, who is in charge of their budget, will regularly appear before the courts on challenges over penal policy.

Last night’s meeting of the Judges’ Council – in effect the judges’ trades union – at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand was attended by 25 key representatives as well as by the Judicial Executive Board or judges’ management board.

A working party to discuss the judges’ concerns was only set up ten days before the new ministry was announced and Lord Falconer made clear that he would be going ahead with setting it up on May 9, with or without the judges’ agreement.

Last week, on the day that the new ministry opened for business, Lord Phillips issued a terse statement which failed to welcome the reform, saying instead that the new ministry raised “important issues of principle” which “have been communicated repeatedly to the Lord Chancellor since January 2007 and on which no agreement had been reached”.

The Magistrates’ Association has also come out in support of the senior judiciary.

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