Kemi Badenoch has called for Prime Minister Andy Burnham to bring in emergency legislation to stop the early release of hundreds of prisoners, warning that dangerous offenders will walk free without it. The Conservative leader, speaking at a press conference alongside victims who could be impacted by the changes, accused Burnham of not knowing what to do about the problem.
Burnham announced last week that he was pausing the early release scheme, which would have seen about 700 prisoners freed in the first phase in September, following a backlash from survivors and victims. But the Conservatives say the government's review will not stop offenders being released.
“Badenoch calls for emergency legislation to stop early release of serious offenders as Burnham pauses scheme after backlash.”
The scheme was part of a bid to stop unprecedented overcrowding, which Labour says was caused by Conservative governments failing to build new prisons. Early release was used by the Conservative government in 2023 because of prison overcrowding, first for 18 and then 70 days. By early July 2024, before Labour came to power, 10,000 prisoners had been released early. When Sir Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, there were fewer than 100 spare prison places across the adult male estate, prompting a new release scheme which saw 60,108 people let out early between September 2024 and December 2025.
Under the government's new Sentencing Act, passed in January, another 6,000 prisoners were due to be released at varying stages, starting from September. While the act already excludes some of the most serious and dangerous offenders, such as murderers serving life sentences or those on extended sentences, the eligibility for early release is based on the length of fixed sentence, rather than the type of offence. That means some criminals convicted of serious sexual and violent offences who have a fixed release date will leave prison earlier than they had expected - although subject to monitoring and risk of recall to prison.
Conservative shadow justice minister Kieran Mullan accused the government of being "extremely dishonest" about its release plans, telling the BBC its claims that serious offenders will not be released are not true.
Badenoch said at the press conference: "It's quite clear that the prime minister sees that this is a problem, but I don't think he knows what to do about it." Without emergency legislation, she warned, dangerous offenders will start to be released.
Burnham said on Tuesday: "It is a challenging situation and we shouldn't actually be in this position as a country, but we have to deal with the reality of where we are. But I will do anything I can to minimise risk to the public and that is why I am looking again and why I have put the release plan for September on hold and we'll make further statements on this in due course."
The calls come as Burnham's Labour holds a narrow 4 per cent lead over Reform according to polling by More in Common, though YouGov puts the parties level pegging - a sign of fragile support for the new prime minister.
