Rayner says Burnham won’t accept ‘system says no’ advice over prisoner release scheme
Good morning. Andy Burnham has been prime minister for three weeks and one day, and arguably he is performing his first U-turn. It is in relation to the prisoner early release scheme and, in particular, finding a way of ensuring that two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper are not included.
Burnham has been looking at this for some time. Early last week he announced significant changes to the early release scheme that he inherited and that was due to come into force from September. Around 1,000 fewer prisoners were going to be included. But two of the three Harper killers (Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers) were not affected by the change, and remained eligible. The main perpetrator (Henry Long), who was driving the car that dragged Harper to his death, was not covered by the scheme anyway because his manslaughter sentence was longer than theirs.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph last week, Burnham implied that he had done as much as he could to toughen up the early release scheme. “I know I can look people in the eye and say to them there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing within months.” At the Downing Street lobby briefing yesterday morning, the PM’s spokesperson also played down the prospect that there might be further tweaks to the system. The spokesperson said that No 10 could not simply adapt the scheme to exclude people convicted of the manslaughter of an emergency worker (one proposed solution), and he highlighted the risk of wider exemptions that could lead to the Prison Service running out of space.
But the spokesperson did not categorically rule out a rethink. And last night the government revealed, in a quote first reported in the Times, that Burnham has told Alex Norris, the justice secretary, to come up with further revisions to the prisoner early release scheme to keep Cole and Bowers in jail.
Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, has confirmed this. She has been giving interviews this morning and she told the Today programme:
The prime minister is determined to ensure that there is a solution to this, and I think he’s made that really clear. And he’s tasked the justice secretary to come to parliament in September with that solution. He’s looking at alternatives like the indefinite sentences, like women prisoners and speeding up foreign nationals being deported. So there is a lot of work that’s going on.
She was implying that, by extending early release to include prisoners on indefinite IPP (imprisonment for public protection) sentences or more women, or by speeding up the deportation of foreign offenders, the government could free up more space. This would allowing more manslaughter offenders like Cole and Bowers to be excluded from early release.
This is a U-turn in the sense that it is a shift from the position Burnham set out last week. Politicians normally get criticised for U-turns. But when the government is committed to a policy unacceptable to the public, ditching it swiftly is normally a wise move (at least, electorally), and that is what Burnham is up to here. This was the case that Rayner made in her Today interview. She said:
The prime minister is really clear. He will not just accept that the system says no. He understands the anger and the trauma that PC Harper’s family are going through, and other victims who are seeing this prison crisis unfold.
The risk for Burnham is that sometimes the system says no for a reason, and sometimes leaders just have to tell people they can’t get what they want. The prison system is in crisis because voters seem to like sending offenders to jail for longer and longer, but don’t seem to like the government building and funding more jails to house them all, and governments can’t deliver on both these wishes without the system eventually collapsing.
As Rajeev Syal reports, Burnham has been warned that, without an extensive prisoner release scheme now, he could end up having to approve another one just before the next election.
Burnham is doing a visit in Derbyshire this morning, and we will hear from him then because he will be doing some media.
Other than that, there is not much on the agenda. But I will be covering reaction to his announcement to give councils enhanced powers to stop betting and vape shops taking over their high streets.
As I explained last month, we are no longer going to have comments open below the line on this blog. If you want to contact me, please email [email protected]. You can use this to flag up corrections, comments for publication, questions or complaints. There is a longer post here about how we hope this will work.
Key events
How Burnham has ordered justice secretary to find way to exclude PC Harper’s killers from early release scheme
Here is Caroline Davies’s story on Andy Burnham ordering Alex Norris, the justice secretary, to revise the prisoner early release scheme again so that two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper are excluded from it.
Rayner says Burnham won’t accept ‘system says no’ advice over prisoner release scheme
Good morning. Andy Burnham has been prime minister for three weeks and one day, and arguably he is performing his first U-turn. It is in relation to the prisoner early release scheme and, in particular, finding a way of ensuring that two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper are not included.
Burnham has been looking at this for some time. Early last week he announced significant changes to the early release scheme that he inherited and that was due to come into force from September. Around 1,000 fewer prisoners were going to be included. But two of the three Harper killers (Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers) were not affected by the change, and remained eligible. The main perpetrator (Henry Long), who was driving the car that dragged Harper to his death, was not covered by the scheme anyway because his manslaughter sentence was longer than theirs.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph last week, Burnham implied that he had done as much as he could to toughen up the early release scheme. “I know I can look people in the eye and say to them there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing within months.” At the Downing Street lobby briefing yesterday morning, the PM’s spokesperson also played down the prospect that there might be further tweaks to the system. The spokesperson said that No 10 could not simply adapt the scheme to exclude people convicted of the manslaughter of an emergency worker (one proposed solution), and he highlighted the risk of wider exemptions that could lead to the Prison Service running out of space.
But the spokesperson did not categorically rule out a rethink. And last night the government revealed, in a quote first reported in the Times, that Burnham has told Alex Norris, the justice secretary, to come up with further revisions to the prisoner early release scheme to keep Cole and Bowers in jail.
Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, has confirmed this. She has been giving interviews this morning and she told the Today programme:
The prime minister is determined to ensure that there is a solution to this, and I think he’s made that really clear. And he’s tasked the justice secretary to come to parliament in September with that solution. He’s looking at alternatives like the indefinite sentences, like women prisoners and speeding up foreign nationals being deported. So there is a lot of work that’s going on.
She was implying that, by extending early release to include prisoners on indefinite IPP (imprisonment for public protection) sentences or more women, or by speeding up the deportation of foreign offenders, the government could free up more space. This would allowing more manslaughter offenders like Cole and Bowers to be excluded from early release.
This is a U-turn in the sense that it is a shift from the position Burnham set out last week. Politicians normally get criticised for U-turns. But when the government is committed to a policy unacceptable to the public, ditching it swiftly is normally a wise move (at least, electorally), and that is what Burnham is up to here. This was the case that Rayner made in her Today interview. She said:
The prime minister is really clear. He will not just accept that the system says no. He understands the anger and the trauma that PC Harper’s family are going through, and other victims who are seeing this prison crisis unfold.
The risk for Burnham is that sometimes the system says no for a reason, and sometimes leaders just have to tell people they can’t get what they want. The prison system is in crisis because voters seem to like sending offenders to jail for longer and longer, but don’t seem to like the government building and funding more jails to house them all, and governments can’t deliver on both these wishes without the system eventually collapsing.
As Rajeev Syal reports, Burnham has been warned that, without an extensive prisoner release scheme now, he could end up having to approve another one just before the next election.
Burnham is doing a visit in Derbyshire this morning, and we will hear from him then because he will be doing some media.
Other than that, there is not much on the agenda. But I will be covering reaction to his announcement to give councils enhanced powers to stop betting and vape shops taking over their high streets.
As I explained last month, we are no longer going to have comments open below the line on this blog. If you want to contact me, please email [email protected]. You can use this to flag up corrections, comments for publication, questions or complaints. There is a longer post here about how we hope this will work.