Outrage as Andy Burnham gives human traffickers ‘early ticket out of prison’

Andy Burnham has been accused of giving human traffickers an “early ticket out of prison” as Labour is pilloried for letting serious offenders back onto the nation’s streets.

There is alarm that inmates serving sentences for human trafficking, slavery, and controlling prostitution could be let out early to ease the prison over-crowding crisis.

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy condemned the potential return of people traffickers to communities across the nation.

He said: “Human traffickers are vile criminals who exploit, traumatise and abuse their victims. Andy Burnham has decided those who commit those crimes deserve an early ticket out of prison.”

Conservatives warn that a host of sexual offences and crimes involving modern slavery are not specifically excluded from the early release programme.

Mr Timothy said the new PM had already staged a series of u-turns on which prisoners will be let of prison early.

He told the Sunday Express: “Andy Burnham said that he will put a ‘pause’ to the changes that were introduced by Labour MPs in the Sentencing Act which would have seen thousands more rapists, paedophiles and violent offenders released early. However, he then u-turned, only blocking the release of rapists and some child sex offenders, meaning killers, grooming gang perpetrators and domestic abusers could be released early.

“He then u-turned a third time by ordering a fresh ‘review’ after Kemi Badenoch wrote to him highlighting that grooming gang perpetrators would still be eligible for early release.”

The Shadow Justice Secretary said the PM still planned to “release violent and sexual offenders early” and warned this would put “victims past and future at risk”.

He said: “Prison works by protecting the public and reoffending numbers show that there will be 89,000 additional crimes in the next few years as a result of Labour’s actions… Britain cannot afford to wait for the next u-turn, which is why the Conservatives are calling for robust emergency legislation to keep violent and sexual offenders behind bars, where they belong.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We inherited prisons on the brink of collapse and are pulling every lever possible to fix this, building 14,000 new places. We’ve listened to victims and excluded a large number of serious offences from these measures, meaning dangerous criminals like those convicted of rape and certain child sex offences will stay behind bars for longer. The Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor have been clear they wanted to go further but could not do so without risking the prison system collapsing within months. We are imposing the toughest-ever controls on offenders, including world-first restriction zones, the largest expansion of electronic tagging, and giving victims more involvement in offenders’ licence conditions.”