Andy Burnham has been accused of “prolonging the torture” endured by victims and bereaved families as uncertainty continues over Labour’s plans for the early release of prisoners.
Claire Waxman, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, said the Prime Minister’s shifting position had brought “chaos and uncertainty” to the justice system, accusing him of “flip-flopping” on the policy.
The Government’s original proposals under the new Sentencing Act would have seen around 6,000 offenders freed early, a move ministers said was needed to ease severe overcrowding across the prison estate.
Soon after entering office, Mr Burnham commissioned an urgent review of the early release scheme following public anger that the killers of PC Andrew Harper could qualify for release ahead of schedule.
That review led to changes announced last week barring rapists and paedophiles from early release, cutting the estimated number of eligible prisoners to about 5,000. However, it did not alter the position of those convicted over PC Harper’s killing.
At the time, Mr Burnham insisted he had pushed the policy as far as possible. But after returning from his summer holiday, the Prime Minister this week appeared to execute a dramatic and disorderly U-turn.
Speaking on Tuesday, he said he was “increasingly confident” PC Harper’s killers would not be freed early, after instructing Justice Secretary Alex Norris to produce proposals aimed at creating prison capacity for serious offenders.
The Prime Minister said he “wouldn’t forgive myself” if he failed to do everything possible to reduce the “anguish” felt by PC Harper’s family. But Ms Waxman sharply criticised Mr Burnham’s handling of the early release policy, condemning what she described as damaging indecision.
Andy Burnham has been warned he’s ‘prolonging the torture’ of victims and their families by dithering over Labour’s early release of prisoners
Claire Waxman, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, accused the Prime Minister of creating ‘chaos and uncertainty’ in the justice system by ‘flip-flopping’
Ms Waxman told The Times that the failure to take a clear decision had left PC Harper’s family and all other families affected by manslaughter in a constant state of uncertainty and chaos that was ‘prolonging their torture’.
‘I’ve been very patient and supportive and trying to work with Government on this,’ she said.
‘But I can’t continue watching this happen because of the impact I’m seeing on victims and families. I know victims who’ve been hospitalised.
‘I’ve got victims who cannot function in their daily lives because they have no idea what this means for them from October.
‘And while I understand that the new prime minister is finding this new sentencing legislation very difficult, it’s legislation that got passed and came in in January.
‘If he doesn’t like it then it doesn’t commence – but that means we’ll run out of spaces in prison. But he’s got to make a decision.’
PC Harper was fatally injured when he got caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and was dragged down a country road as the killers fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in 2019.
Two out of three of PC Harper’s killers, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, are set to be released next year halfway through their 13-year sentences, after being convicted of manslaughter in 2020.
The driver of the vehicle, Henry Long, received a 16-year sentence and would not have been eligible for the Government’s early release scheme.
Speaking to LBC, the PM was asked if he had a message for Aimee Harper, the sister of PC Harper who had shared with the broadcaster her experience of sitting in the courtroom with his killers.
Asked what he would directly say to Ms Harper, Mr Burnham replied: ‘That I hear you, I feel for you. I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t do everything I possibly could to try and lessen your anguish, and I am doing that.
‘I am turning over every stone. I am looking at everything. I am pushing the system to go further.’
He added: ‘That’s the way I go about my job. I listen to people. I continually push myself and the system to do more. In this instance, I think there is more that can be done.’
PC Andrew Harper, a Thames Valley Police officer, was killed in August 2019 when responding to a quad bike theft in Berkshire
Mr Burnham pointed to returning foreign national offenders and dealing with the issue of those serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences, an indeterminate jail term, as means of freeing up prison space.
The Government is also looking at using parts of the female prison estate for male offenders.
There are growing suggestions of a rift between No10 and the Ministry of Justice, with Downing Street officials said to see their opposite numbers as ‘weak’ after weeks of conflicting messages on the prisons crisis.
Meanwhile, it was reported that allies of the Justice Secretary felt the PM was making ‘promises that aren’t possible’.
In an unprecedented intervention, 50 police leaders – representing every force in the UK – united to condemn Labour’s scheme, calling on the PM to scrap plans to set free Cole, Bowers and thousands of other dangerous prisoners.
The National Police Chiefs Council released an extraordinary joint letter from the heads of 48 UK police forces, the National Crime Agency and Jersey Police, condemning the plans, warning it ‘risks undermining public safety, victim confidence and wider confidence in the criminal justice system’.
The signatories want Mr Burnham to explore ‘every lawful option’ to stop PC Harper’s killers being freed, suggesting the Government’s plans to early release offenders are a betrayal of a law brought in his memory.
His widow, Lissie, fought for Harper’s Law – a mandatory life sentence for anyone who kills an emergency worker in the line of duty following outrage over the sentencing of his killers.
