Prisoner release row proving to be Burnham’s first big test as PM

Three weeks into his premiership, Andy Burnham has “hit bumps in the road” in the estimation of one long-serving Labour MP with the row over the early release of some prisoners from jail.

His political opponents are already sharpening their attacks, believing they have found an issue with which to discomfit a new prime minister early in his time in office who had, until now, displayed a pretty deft political touch.

Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This the most important decision Andy Burnham has made since he became prime minister and he’s got it wrong.”

For Labour MPs, however, this week has shown Burnham is prepared to confront difficult choices and take decisions which, as he said in his first speech in Downing Street, are “more about problem solving than point scoring”.

Burnham’s first two weeks in the job were pretty problem free, with a succession of announcements, from a cap on bus fares to a determination to overhaul of social care, along with a blitz of social media videos, all designed to portray a more relaxed PM with a focus on everyday issues.

The overcrowding crisis in our prisons has presented him with a dilemma for which there are only unpalatable choices.

Crucially too, they are some of the first difficult choices Burnham has had to make in office.

The issue long predates his arrival in Downing Street. In 2023, with space in jails on the verge of running out, the last Conservative government started releasing prisoners 18 days early. That was only a temporary fix.

Just days after becoming prime minister in July 2024, Sir Keir Starmer had to contemplate a more far-reaching prisoner release scheme, saying “it is shocking for our country to have got into a state where we have too many prisoners and not enough prison places”.

In January this year, Sir Keir’s government passed the Sentencing Act under which several thousand prisoners will be released early starting this autumn, including some convicted of very serious crimes.