A manager from a solicitor’s firm denied being part of a “gravy train” in a BBC documentary.

Harrow-based Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ practice manager Jason Bruce featured on BBC Panorama’s Legal Aid reform documentary “DIY Justice”, broadcast on Monday.

In the documentary, reporter Raphael Rowe met members of society who have been suffered as a consequence of vast legal aid cuts, such as parents who are fighting for access to their children without any legal assistance.

A consequence of government cut of £350 million from the legal aid budget has been a massive rise in people representing themselves in the UK civil courts, many of whom are not qualified to do so.

However surviving legal aid firms have been accused of being part of a legal “gravy train” or of “bankrolling public money, which Duncan Lewis’ practice director Jason Bruce denied.

Mr Bruce told Panorama that an average legal aid bill at Duncan Lewis Solicitors amounted to around £800 per client – and the vast majority of Legal Aid lawyers would be on a salary of around £22,000 to £40,000.

He said: “I think it’s really, really important that everyone fully understands that there is no gravy train – there is no bankrolling using the public purse’s money when it should be spent elsewhere.”