Almost 90,000 Britons will become victims of crime thanks to Labour’s prison release plan, new analysis suggests.
According to the Conservatives, there will be around 500 added sex offences, nearly 1,800 violent crimes and just under 36,000 thefts before the end of this Parliament in 2029.
On top of this, the Tories estimate there could be 1,500 crimes for possessing a weapon, more than 7,000 drug-related offences and up to 3,000 public order offences that will be recorded.
It comes amid reports the early prison release policy is still under review as Prime Minister Andy Burnham considers viable options to block the release of police officer Andrew Harper’s killers, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy told the Daily Mail: “Labour’s early release scheme is still set to let thousands of dangerous criminals out early, and this will mean communities seeing dangerous offenders let back on to their streets.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “This is highly speculative and an inaccurate method of calculating the impact of sentencing reforms.
“Without them, we risk prisons reaching capacity and collapsing. If that happened, police could not make arrests, courts could not remand offenders, and there would be unchecked criminality on our streets.
“The Sentencing Act is restoring order to a prison system left on the brink of collapse, while our record £700million investment in probation and community punishment ensures staff have the resources… needed to manage offenders safely in the community.”
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Senior Liberal Democrat blasts Labour’s early prisoner release scheme
A senior Liberal Democrat has slammed Andy Burnham’s early release scheme as she called on Labour to build more prison spaces.
The MP for North Shropshire Helen Morgan told GB News: “I think everybody’s very concerned about the early release scheme, particularly where there are people who might have been domestic abusers.
“We’ve heard about the killers of PC Harper. I think people are very concerned about those prisoners being released early, but the reality is we haven’t built any new prisons for many, many years, and spaces need to be protected so that the rest of the system can function.
“We’d like to see the government protect some of those types of crimes, those types of criminals, from being released into the community because they’re clearly dangerous.
“But we need to get on, as you say, and provide the prison spaces so that we don’t have to face this early release problem.”
Reform UK in talks with El Salvador to deport all migrant criminals to nation’s infamous jails
Reform UK has pledged to deport all foreign nationals from Britain’s prisons, with discussions reportedly underway to free up prison spaces by sending offenders to El Salvador should the party gain power.
Unveiling Reform’s prisons policy late on Sunday, the party’s Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf vowed to “change the law so that those who commit serious crimes like murder, manslaughter, rape and serious violence serve their full sentences”.
He said: “Unbelievably, there are over 10,000 foreign nationals in British jails.
“We will deport all foreign nationals from our jails. If their home countries won’t take them back we will send them to serve their sentences in countries like El Salvador and Kosovo.
“We will use the space created to ensure that serious criminals stay where they belong. Behind bars.”
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