Only days after becoming prime minister, Andy Burnham was hit by the first public scandal of his premiership. Shabana Mahmood, the former justice secretary who is now home secretary, Wes Streeting and Alex Norris, the new justice secretary, were filmed chatting and joking in a leaked video about Labour's policy of early prisoner release.
Shabana Mahmood appeared to brush aside Wes Streeting's teasing during a lighthearted exchange over prison policy. Jokingly suggesting that Norris had become her “enemy” because “he wants to let them all out”, Streeting prompted an immediate rebuttal from Mahmood, who insisted, “No, he’s not!” She then appeared to reaffirm her authority over the issue, adding with a smile: “You know who’s boss!”
In a separate conversation moments later, Mahmood congratulated newly appointed Alex Norris on his new role and asked when his swearing-in ceremony would take place. After Norris replied that it would likely be “a couple of weeks” away, Mahmood said she wanted to attend, telling him: “Tell me when it is, I’ll come around. I want to come.”
Prison Overcrowding Forces Difficult Choices
When Keir Starmer became prime minister in 2024, he was warned that prisons in England and Wales were so overcrowded that, if they ran out of space, police could be forced to stop making arrests. The government then announced plans to build four new prisons, creating around 6,500 places as part of a wider strategy to deliver 14,000 additional prison cells by 2031, backed by an initial investment of £2.3bn ($3.1bn).
That alone, however, was not enough. To ease the immediate pressure on prison capacity, the government introduced an early release scheme in 2024 under which many prisoners became eligible for automatic release after serving 40% of their custodial sentence instead of 50%.
The policy sparked controversy after images of prisoners celebrating their release, including footage of some appearing to pop champagne bottles outside prison gates, circulated widely. David Lammy, who was secretary of state for justice at the time, told The Guardian this month that without the scheme there could be “no prison capacity” left across England and Wales by November 2026.
Another cause for concern is the rise in prison recalls. Record numbers of offenders are being returned to custody in England and Wales, with union officials from the Prison Officers’ Association claiming that some are deliberately breaching the conditions of their release in order to return to prison and continue dealing drugs from behind bars.
According to prison sources, following the introduction of the early release scheme, as many as 5,000 men were recalled to custody in December alone, representing more than one third of the total number of prisoners released during the year to June 2025.
Ahead of a further expansion of the scheme under the Sentencing Act, due to take effect in September, the plans triggered a public outcry. In a rare coordinated intervention, both the victims' commissioner and the domestic abuse commissioner urged ministers to pause the early release of thousands of offenders convicted of crimes against women and girls.
Victims' charities say many victims have been left fearful by the uncertainty over whether their offenders could soon be released. Unless they are eligible for the Victim Contact Scheme, which only covers a limited number of cases, most have no way of finding out in advance whether they are affected. Some have reportedly installed CCTV cameras and taken additional security measures to protect themselves.
PC Harper's Unrepentant Killers Up for Early Release
Part of the public outrage also stemmed from the fact that the killers of PC Andrew Harper became eligible for the early release scheme. The Thames Valley Police officer was responding to the theft of a quad bike in Berkshire in 2019 when his ankles became entangled in a tow strap trailing behind the suspects' vehicle.
He was dragged for more than a mile at speeds exceeding 42mph (68km/h), swinging “from side to side like a pendulum” as the gang sped along an unlit country road. The impact tore away much of his uniform, leaving him fatally injured.
This week, the Ministry of Justice confirmed that two of Harper's killers, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, who were both 17 at the time and passengers in the car, are now eligible for release after serving half of their 13-year sentences under the early release scheme. Throughout the proceedings and since their convictions, neither has shown any remorse for their role in the killing.
Lissie Harper, PC Harper's widow, condemned Labour's early release policy: “It is deplorable to me that we have reached a point where releasing prisoners early is even considered acceptable.” She added: “We speak of justice, accountability and standing with victims, yet decisions like this do the opposite.”
Following the public criticism and the leaked video, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that “everything has been looked at again” ahead of the release of a new tranche of 6,000 offenders on electronic tags. However, prison reform groups, government officials and criminal justice experts warned that abandoning measures to ease prison overcrowding could leave the system unable to cope with demand and risk it “collapsing under its own weight”.
