Andy Burnham facing 'defining moment' as Prime Minister with early release prison scheme decision

Andy Burnham is facing his "defining moment" as Prime Minister with his decision on the early release prison scheme, Matthew Stadlen has claimed.

Speaking to GB News, the political commentator stressed that although the prisons crisis is a "legacy problem", it has now become "Labour's problem".

Following controversy over the release of grooming gang perpetrators and the eligible release of two of PC Andrew Harper's killers, Mr Burnham has paused the scheme pending an "urgent review".

The Prime Minister has assured that "no prisoners will be let out under this policy until we have conducted an urgent review and done everything we can to minimise risk to the public".

Discussing the scheme and the decision to pause, host Charlie Peters stressed that Mr Burnham "cannot pause legislation" directly.

Asked whether the Prime Minister will "recall Parliament" to change the legislation of the scheme, Mr Stadlen said: "This is an example of a difficult decision that Andy Burnham is going to have to make.

"It's all very well the giveaways and I think a very good start to his prime ministership, but calling MPs back to make tough choices, that's what ultimately I think will define him."

Mr Stadlen made clear that the prison places crisis is a "serious situation" as a result of the Tories.

He explained: "This is a legacy problem, but it's become Labour's problem. So the Tories left I think just 100 free spaces in the adult male estate when this Labour Government took control in July a couple of years ago.

"That's an astonishing failure because it is the first responsibility, isn't it, of the state to keep us safe from outside, from foreign powers, but also amongst ourselves? So it is a very serious situation."

Mr Stadlen added: "Labour would say that they've created nearly 3,000 new places and that they're building a further 5,000 as part of a drive to get 14,000 new places I think by 2031, but clearly it's not happened quickly enough."

He argued that the Government could look into other ways to free up prison spaces rather than releasing "rapists and violent criminals" onto our streets.

He said: "If you want my view, I would not be allowing rapists and other violent criminals out early, I would find another way of fixing the problem.

"It's not my responsibility, I'm not in power in Government, those sorts of choices are really tough.

"Don't forget, if you don't do something about it, if you don't release anyone early, given there don't seem to be enough places, then you're not going to be able to stick people in prison moving forward.

"So this is a really nasty, thorny issue that Burnham is facing."

Mr Stadlen made clear that Mr Burnham now has the "opportunity" to govern differently to Sir Keir Starmer.

He concluded: "I think he understands the potential ramifications precisely as he's been pausing this early prisoner release. The question is, how does he follow that up?

"But he has the opportunity now to do things differently to Starmer, because Starmer was coming in with Labour having not been in power for 14 years.

"Andy Burnham is coming in seeing the mistakes that the Starmer Government made and it is now open to him to correct those."