Andy Burnham admits he 'pushed early prison release to the limits' as PM reveals three-point plan to 'fix prison crisis once and for all'

By GB News (Politics) | Created at 2026-08-04 11:56:45 | Updated at 2026-08-05 01:31:52 13 hours ago

Andy Burnham has admitted he "pushed the early prison release scheme to the limits" as the Prime Minister revealed a three-point plan to "fix prison crisis once and for all".

Last night, Mr Burnham blocked grooming gang rapists from upcoming changes to prison sentences as part of a push to protect the public from dangerous criminals.

He also announced rapists will face tougher community supervision and a new GPS monitoring system.

The changes mean rape and child sexual offences will be added to the exclusions that were already in place for 18,000 offenders, including those who have been found by a court to be the most dangerous or anyone serving a life sentence.

But the move did not go far enough for critics after it was revealed two men involved in the 2018 killing of police officer Andrew Harper are still likely to be up for early release.

Now, the Labour leader admitted that he had hoped he could "go even further" in the face of the ongoing crisis engulfing prisons across England and Wales.

He said: "I know there will be concerns about who will still be released early for other offences. I have pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do.

"I know I can look people in the eye and say to them there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing within months."