Watching the news conference held by the Leader of the Opposition, Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP, yesterday morning, the 28th of July, I was profoundly moved by the testimony of the six women who sat with her in front of the cameras, the media, the country, to make the case for ‘faith in justice’. I had the honour of meeting many of these brave ladies in Westminster alongside Dr Kieran Mullen MP, Shadow Justice Minister in my role as Shadow Minister for Women ahead of our Opposition Day on this travesty led by Labour.
I am providing a link and would encourage my constituents to view it for themselves – the determination and fortitude these courageous women have showed, not only to get justice for themselves and the 9000 others who have also received letters from this Government saying their perpetrators are being released early; not only for the sadly inevitable future child victims of predation and abuse who may chose not to go through the trauma of testifying knowing offenders will get but ‘a slap on the wrist’ for their heinous crimes but for the sake of trust in a justice system that seems to no longer say the sentence must be commensurate with the crime.
Badenoch calls for emergency law on early prisoner releases
More than 70,000 prisoners have already been released early since this Labour Government came into office only two years ago. This is staggering.
With victims still reeling, the Government recently legislated to go even further. Let me be clear – this is not to be a temporary measure to deal with the undeniable and serious issues in the prison estate and we do acknowledge our role in creating these - this is driven by Labour’s desire to make this permanent legislation, a permanent scheme which would continue even if prison places soared. This is a political choice, and Labour Ministers chose to let rapists, paedophiles and members of grooming gangs out of prison after serving as little as one third of their sentence.
This madcap Labour Government’s Sentencing Act brings about the biggest reduction in prison sentences in British history. It means that more than half of all offenders who previously went to prison – will, from now on, be out on our streets.
Under the Act, the Labour Government has a “duty to release” rapists and paedophiles early from September.
The Government claimed that these releases are necessary to free up prison capacity. They claimed that these releases were based on the ‘earned progression model’. They claimed the most serious offenders would be excluded. None of this turned out to be true.
Yes, under the Conservatives, we had an early release scheme – 10, 000 prisoners over 14 years - and the last time Labour were in power, they released 80,000 prisoners. Crucially though, in the past, early release schemes have rightly always excluded serious sexual and violent offenders. This category of offender should not be eligible for early release under any circumstances. I agree with Kemi – this is an absolute red line and public safety must come first. I believe, hard though it is to do so, that killers such as those who were instrumental in killing PC Harper are also considered eligible for early release.
According to a Telegraph report on the 30th of July, reoffending and recalls to prison have both hit record highs ‘following the release of more than 70,000 convicted criminals under Labour’s scheme to combat jail overcrowding’
The most common reasons for recall, which rose by 73% from 2024 to 2025 (and is nearly double the 27,820 recorded in 2023), were ‘ “non-compliance” with their licence, failing to keep in touch with their probation officers and facing another charge’.
Record reoffending after 70,000 prisoners released early
The Leader of the Opposition, along with the Shadow Justice Team, met with victims and survivors in Parliament who are understandably worried and appalled. As the Official Opposition, we tabled amendments to exclude rapists and sexual offenders from the Sentencing Act; Ministers rejected them, saying the most serious offences would be excluded. I am, frankly, outraged this Government has spent months telling rape and grooming gang survivors that their offenders’ crimes were not “serious" enough to be excluded from early release.
My colleague, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, Nick Timothy MP opened final Opposition Day debate on the Early Release of Prisoners, 7th of July by saying,
‘We gather for this important debate at a dangerous but very strange moment. It is dangerous because from September, the Government will start releasing serious criminals from prison part-way through their sentences. Among them, as things stand, will be many violent criminals, including killers, rapists and child sex offenders, because Labour and the Liberal Democrats voted against our amendment to exclude them from the early release scheme. Thanks to those Labour and Lib Dem votes, some of those released may be convicted members of the rape gangs.
Our position remains clear: not one of these dangerous, disgusting people should ever have been included in Labour’s early release scheme. It seems that the next leader of the Labour party—the next Prime Minister—disagrees with the Justice Secretary and with the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Jake Richards)—the sentencing Minister—and agrees with us. His people told the Sunday Times that he wants to prevent child sex offenders from walking free. They say that his advisers are working on primary legislation, but they also say that as the right hon. Member for Makerfield (Andy Burnham) is not taking office before the summer recess, they might not be able to act in time.
That is what is very strange about this dangerous moment. We have a Prime Minister squatting in Downing Street…and we have the next Prime Minister—indeed, the only candidate to become Prime Minister—saying that he disagrees with what the Government whom he is due to lead will do this September, but that he lacks the time or the power to do anything about it. That is pathetic. The House is sitting this week and next before the summer recess; there is plenty of time to act. The Government could amend the Sentencing Act 2026 to exclude rapists and child sex offenders through emergency legislation. They could lay new commencement regulations, delaying the instruction of the early release scheme, and give the new Prime Minister enough time to get his act together.
We have invited the Government to do those things in the motion before the House, and we understand that they will not contest it. After voting for the Sentencing Act and against our amendment to exclude sex offenders from the early release scheme, today they have folded, but they still cannot tell us the plan. Will they bring forward emergency legislation? Will they bring forward new commencement regulations? ‘
You can access the full debate transcript here:
Early Release of Prisoners - Hansard - UK Parliament
The Labour Government chose not to act. They have still not acted and this is why we are continuing to urgently press the Government via any means available to take concrete and meaningful action victims need.
Currently, the first tranche of releases will take place on 2 September. While I welcome that, after sustained pressure from the Opposition, the Prime Minister Andy Burnham has now announced he is “pausing” the commencement of the early release scheme, it is pending yet another review. As Kemi says, this means nothing until the legislation is changed. A true pause must involve revoking the commencement order as soon as possible.
In addition, the review has no detail behind it; I cannot tell you whether the review will look at excluding perpetrators of certain offenses - which Government MPs previously voted against in Parliament - or whether it is simply a new plan for the probation service to better monitor the released offenders. We also don’t have the full picture of the actual numbers involved as the Government will not release the figures, leaving the public and Opposition politicians in the dark.
The Government must bring forward emergency legislation to permanently restrict the eligibility of the early release scheme; my colleagues and I would support it in Parliament. Instead of the uncertainty and confusion of another review, I am clear the Government needs to permanently exclude rapists and paedophiles from early release, protect the public, stand up for victims and help start to rebuild the country’s trust in our justice system.
There will be those who choose to focus on past mistakes and missed chances under previous Conservative government administrations and that is fair. But we can’t change the past. Our job now, under our new leader, is to come up with real solutions for the present and detailed plans for the future. That is what I and my colleagues are rightly focused on. We are determined to not to let the public down.
