UK PM Burnham under fire over prisons crisis as Farage proposes sending offenders to El Salvador
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham faces mounting criticism over a controversial early prisoner release scheme, while Reform UK leader Nigel Farage proposes deporting foreign offenders to serve sentences in El Salvador and Kosovo.
Just three weeks into the job, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is facing growing pressure over an early prisoner release scheme due to take effect in September. The scheme, which would see killers, rapists and sex offenders released early, has sparked widespread public and media anger.
Burnham initially paused the scheme, then last week announced more restrictive rules. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said he wanted to go further but that the revised plan pushed to the limits of what was possible without risking the prison system collapsing.
However, the new rules will not affect two of the killers of police officer Andrew Harper, who will still be released early under the scheme. Burnham is reportedly considering further changes to include them. Meanwhile, Conservatives claim the early release scheme could lead to around 500 additional sex offences, nearly 1,800 violent crimes and almost 36,000 thefts before 2029. The Ministry of Justice has dismissed these figures as highly speculative and based on a flawed method, warning that without the scheme prisons risk reaching capacity and collapsing, which could leave police unable to make arrests and courts unable to remand offenders.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has put forward his own proposal: rapidly deporting foreign offenders in England and Wales to serve their sentences in countries such as El Salvador and Kosovo. Party chairman Lee Anderson is reportedly set to visit El Salvador later this year to discuss renting prison space. Farage is also proposing new "Nightingale prisons" to add capacity. Critics point out flaws in the plan, noting that nearly a third of the more than 10,000 foreign nationals in custody have not yet been convicted, and questioning what would happen to offenders after completing sentences in Kosovo.
A Labour spokesperson said Reform has no serious answers to the prisons crisis and that its plan would cause the system to collapse. Separately, Green party leader Zack Polanski criticised the government's response to the climate crisis amid a summer heatwave.
