DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Releasing prisoners early is an unacceptable solution...your soft justice is a disgrace, PM

Published: 00:01 BST, 2 October 2026 | Updated: 00:36 BST, 2 October 2026

It speaks volumes about Andy Burnham's ocean-going political arrogance that he has proceeded with the wholesale early release of prisoners.

Faced with the public outrage that forced him to keep PC Andrew Harper's killers behind bars, he had every opportunity to do the sensible thing and scrap the entire scheme.

Yet he pressed ahead regardless and, now that they are clear, the full details are even more troubling than anyone feared. Unleashing 700 or so inmates upon the nation yesterday is only the start of it. A drop in an ocean of thuggery.

Far worse is to come in the weeks and months ahead as tens of thousands of convicts sentenced to longer jail terms - including sex offenders, domestic abusers and other violent individuals - are set loose in a series of phased releases.

The PM's failure to read the room will leave us with a more dangerous Britain than the one we woke up to yesterday. It hardly requires a clairvoyant to figure out what happens next. At the very least, it will mean countless victims of violent crime in abject fear of being targeted again by their tormentors.

The PM's failure to read the room will leave us with a more dangerous Britain than the one we woke up to yesterday

No one disputes that there is pressure on space within the penal system, but releasing offenders before they've paid their debt to society can never be an acceptable solution. Any supposedly sophisticated country should have enough cells to accommodate offenders handed custodial sentences by the courts.

If Mr Burnham needs a stop-gap measure in advance of a full prison-building programme, he only needs to look back at the 'Nightingale' hospitals established in double-quick time during the Covid crisis. There is nothing to stop him setting up temporary jails along similar lines.

We won't be holding our breath. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that the PM - same as with the benefits bill and the migrant crisis - has completely failed to grasp the seriousness of the situation. Worse, he seems oblivious to the genuine fear among law-abiding citizens in all corners of Britain.

Little wonder there were criminals openly laughing at him yesterday as they emerged through the prison gates. But, of course, the joke isn't really on Mr Burnham - it's on the rest of us.

Growing pains 

With a record UK population of 69.5 million, it is to be expected that hospitals, GP surgeries and other public services face almost impossible demands.

But there must be a question mark over the figure in light of the key part played by migration in the rise. Given the dysfunctional state of our asylum system - as well as the number of people who have overstayed their visas or are undocumented for other reasons - it seems highly likely that the numbers living here are far bigger than official records suggest.

Woes of welfare 

It isn't entirely surprising that three-quarters of the £12billion rise in welfare spending since the election has gone to Labour constituencies.

But it is even less of a surprise that Britain's long-term borrowing costs have risen to their highest level since 1998. Unless the PM and Chancellor John Healey do something about reducing the benefits bill, the situation is only going to get worse.