Common-sense action is needed. Build more jails, rent use of overseas cells and deport foreign inmates.
As a result of Labour’s shameful sentencing act, 220 child rapists are eligible for early release next month. So too are 85 men convicted of manslaughter, and two of the men who dragged Pc Andrew Harper to his death behind a car.
In total, more than 6,000 sex offenders and violent criminals are set to be freed from prison in monthly tranches from September, because Labour’s new act cuts the time serious offenders spend behind bars.
In 2020, the Conservatives legislated to increase the sentences that these vile individuals would serve. Under Labour they will now serve just half their term.
If Andy Burnham really means what he says, he could bring this all to a halt.
The law creating this scheme can be revoked by the Justice Secretary with a simple signature. The new occupant of that role, Alex Norris, has been in the job only a matter of days. He should make this his first act.
Burnham says he’s “paused” the scheme pending a “review”. Telegraph readers will have seen this story before. Putting something “under review” is government-speak for not making a decision.
It’s Starmerism all over again. Another review, another consultation, when everyone can see that common-sense action is needed. Victims deserve better.
We already know the true cost of this policy. Liam Matthews was released early from HMP Holme House by Labour on the morning of Sept 19 2024. Before the day was over, he had stabbed Lewis Bell, a father of one, to death.
The fact is, we need more prison places. The Conservatives put it in our manifesto in 2019, but Covid stalled the prison-building programme.
Labour has had two years to pick up those plans and build new prisons, but nothing is happening. In fact, it’s even worse. On entering government, Labour cancelled the Conservatives’ plan to rent prison capacity abroad, which would have helped solve the problem.
So here is my offer, and it is a serious one: build, rent, remove.
Build. Bring forward new prison places by building prisons more cheaply and quickly.
Rent. Sweden has just rented hundreds of cells in Estonia. The Conservatives legislated for the powers to do the same and Labour let the legislation lapse. Burnham should reopen those talks and we will support him.
Remove. There is a significant population of foreign national offenders in our jails. Where appropriate, they should be removed from Britain. The Government should be negotiating new transfer agreements to make that happen. Similarly to what the Conservatives did in government with our Albanian returns agreement.
Serious policy in this area has to rest on a simple foundation: rights rest on duties. A man who rapes a child has broken the moral contract with society and therefore forfeits his liberty. A foreign national who commits a serious crime here has forfeited his claim to remain.
When the state will not act on either, the law stops protecting the public and starts sheltering the people who prey on them.
Ministers will tell you that their hands are tied. They aren’t. This is the same proceduralist instinct that runs through everything that Labour touches. It’s process before common sense.
It’s how the Government ends up paying Mauritius for the privilege of surrendering British sovereign territory. It’s how they wave through a Chinese mega-embassy and spy hub next to our critical national infrastructure. It’s how they justify the mental gymnastics of scrapping jury trials to improve justice.
Every one of those terrible moves was presented as a legal obligation or necessity, but it was not. It was a political choice presented by Starmer, now handed to Burnham.
This bureaucratic mindset still sits around the Cabinet table and in every department, and it’s why nothing in this country gets built, decided or delivered until after years and years of process and litigation.
On July 8, my motion to exempt sexual offenders from early release passed by 115 votes to none. Labour MPs were too scared to vote against it.
The Prime Minister took office four days after the Commons rose. He has not answered a single question there. MPs do not return until September, the day before the gates are due to open. He does not have to wait for Parliament and he does not have to wait for us. He needs to show he’s serious.
On his first day in Downing Street, he said Labour had not been good enough and promised to do better. Here is his chance, and it will cost him nothing. If Burnham repeals the early release provisions relating to serious offenders, the Conservatives will vote for it.
But if those prison gates open in September, it will be because Andy Burnham chose to open them.
