Badenoch calls for emergency legislation to stop early release scheme
Conservative leader pushes the Prime Minister to introduce emergency laws to halt the upcoming release of hundreds of prisoners.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Kemi Badenoch urges Prime Minister Andy Burnham to pass emergency legislation
- Pause the early release scheme which aimed to free nearly 700 prisoners in September
- Conservatives argue the government review fails to stop dangerous offenders from walking free
- Families of victims and fallen police officers strongly condemn the policy
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to introduce emergency legislation aimed at halting the early release of hundreds of prisoners, following intense backlash from victims and their families that forced a temporary pause on the scheme last week.
The initiative was originally designed to free approximately 700 inmates in its first phase this September. However, the Conservative opposition maintains that the government's ongoing review will not successfully prevent convicted offenders from returning to the streets. The unprecedented overcrowding that triggered the scheme was blamed by Labour on previous Conservative administrations failing to construct new prison facilities.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Early release measures were first implemented by the Conservative government back in 2023 due to severe capacity crunches, initially shaving 18 days off sentences before extending it to 70 days. By June 2024, prior to Labour taking office, roughly 10,000 prisoners had been released early. When Sir Keir Starmer entered Downing Street in July 2024, fewer than 100 spare prison spaces remained across the entire adult male estate, forcing the invocation of the Sentencing Act to release another 6,000 inmates starting in September.
The UK prison capacity crisis highlights decades of systemic underinvestment and the difficult policy trade-offs between public safety and infrastructure limits. Debating emergency legislation transcends standard legal adjustments, turning into a high-stakes political battle over public trust in the criminal justice system.
While the legislation officially excludes the most dangerous criminals such as life-sentence murderers, eligibility is determined by sentence length rather than the nature of the crime itself. Badenoch is now demanding that Burnham fast-track laws to keep serious offenders behind bars, warning that without emergency intervention, dangerous individuals could start walking free on Tuesday, September 1, the exact day MPs return from the summer recess.
"Victims should not have to live in fear all summer waiting for a review. The clock is ticking. Thousands of rapists, paedophiles, and other serious criminals are set to be released in September. Labour must act now and stop the mass release of dangerous criminals."
Nick Timothy
Political pressure intensified further after the family of Thames Valley Police officer Andrew Harper—who was killed in Berkshire in 2019 after being dragged behind a car by three teenagers—criticized the scheme, noting that some of his killers could have benefited from the policy by June 2027. Defending the review, a Labour Party spokesperson hit back at the Conservatives, accusing them of closing 23 prisons and adding a meager 482 cells during their 14 years in power while letting 10,000 prisoners out early.
Source: BBC Politics
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