DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Andy Burnham's prisons secrecy adds insult to injury

Published: 00:35 BST, 12 October 2026 | Updated: 00:35 BST, 12 October 2026

It is bad enough for Andy Burnham to jeopardise public safety through Labour's wholesale early release of prisoners. But his lack of transparency about the numbers involved adds insult to injury.

From tomorrow, criminals jailed for up to 29 months will emerge through prison gates across Britain without having served their sentences in full. They will be followed on to the streets in the coming weeks and months by convicts handed longer custodial terms.

Yet no information will be given on how many of these individuals - sex offenders, domestic abusers and other violent offenders among them - are being unleashed on the law-abiding community. 

That the figures will be rolled in with other statistics will only fuel suspicions that the Government is keeping something from us.

What little we do know about those already freed under Labour's scheme gives cause for serious concern. Hours after walking free earlier this month, one 38-year-old offender went on a shoplifting spree and is now back behind bars.

According to Greater Manchester Police, eight suspects were arrested for offences including robbery, drugs and domestic violence within days of being let out. 

Another man freed under the previous Labour scheme almost a year ago, 60-year-old Robert Sabat, was jailed for life last week for murdering his ex-partner days after release.

Andy Burnham is pictured during a visit to the Humphrey Booth Resource Centre in Manchester last week

People celebrate as they leave HMP Bristol in Horfield, north Bristol. From tomorrow, criminals jailed for up to 29 months will emerge through prison gates across Britain without having served their sentences in full

Yet even in the absence of official data on the numbers freed and the level of reoffending, two things could hardly be more obvious. 

One is that the Prime Minister has woefully underestimated the level of public concern about crime. The other is that early release for repeat offenders - especially ones with a history of violence - will come back to bite him very hard indeed.

Trump's cynical ploy

For all Donald Trump's talk of a Russia-Ukraine 'energy ceasefire', his main priorities lie elsewhere.

Little more than three weeks have passed since he signed measures into law aimed at intensifying sanctions against companies buying Russian oil and gas. 

Yet, in a move that will provide a massive boost to the Kremlin's finances and could actually prolong the war in Ukraine, he has now agreed a deal with Vladimir Putin to import millions of tons of diesel.

This self-serving act is squarely aimed at bolstering support in next month's midterm elections through lower fuel prices. But the consequences for everyone else could ultimately prove to be seismic.

There is little doubt that this sordid transaction - and the revenue flowing in Moscow's direction as a result - will embolden the Putin regime further. Thanks to President Trump's cynical manoeuvring, the world - and Europe in particular - is a less safe place than it was a week ago.

A testing question

It beggars belief that migrants will be allowed to take the multiple-choice Life in the UK Test remotely as part of their citizenship applications.

The Home Office insists there will be 'advanced security measures to detect and prevent cheating' by candidates taking the test either from home or unspecified locations. Quite how that works remains to be seen.

Here's a multiple-choice question from the Daily Mail on the subject: Does this sound like a way of making it easier for migrants to stay in this country forever? (a) Yes; (b) Of course; (c) Absolutely; or (d) Nothing surer.