Afternoon summary
Updated
Here are two, apparently contradictory, takes on the conference season.
This is from an analysis by Beth Rigby, political editor at Sky News.
Labour sources tell me Sir Keir’s speech has had “unusual levels of cut-through”, helped by the glitter bombing and his reaction to it – which I’m told focus groups say showed he had “character” and was a leader who was “composed and calm”.
“The backdrop to all of this is a lack of trust in all politicians,” explained one Labour figure. “Delivery is hard in opposition but they are aware of how much Keir has changed the party in a short space of time and that gives an increasingly strong reason to believe.”
And this is from from James Johnson, a pollster who used to work in No 10 for Theresa May.
New @timesradio focus group of undecided voters:
- All dislike ‘weak’ Keir Starmer and prefer Sunak to him
- All think Sunak had the better conference season
- But… every single one of them said they would now vote Labour if pushed
Why? ‘It’s time for change’.
Focus group on…
New @timesradio focus group of undecided voters:
— James Johnson (@jamesjohnson252) October 12, 2023
- All dislike ‘weak’ Keir Starmer and prefer Sunak to him
- All think Sunak had the better conference season
- But... every single one of them said they would now vote Labour if pushed
Why? 'It’s time for change'.
Focus group on…
This might seem strange until you remember that undecided voters are largely people who voted Conservative in 2019. There are relatively few Labour voters from four years ago who are still unsure how to vote this time.
Updated
Plaid Cymru says prison overcrowding debacle shows why responsibility for justice should be devolved to Wales
Plaid Cymru says the overcrowding and chaos in the prison system shows why responsibility for justice should be devolved to the Welsh government.
Prisons, and law and order generally, in Wales are the responsibility of the Westminster government, and Wales will be affected by judges being told to delay the sentencing of convicted criminals because jails in England and Wales are full.
Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, said Wales would be better under an alternative system. In a statement she said:
The people of Wales are being let down by the current system. Wales has the highest imprisonment rate in western Europe, but the Tories continue to fill our prisons with low-risk offenders serving short-term sentences, rather than prioritising spaces for violent offenders.
Moving toward properly resourced community-based solutions for low-risk and non-violent crimes would help free up space in prisons for those who have committed serious offences and pose a higher risk to our communities. Instead, Westminster politicians continue a hardline rhetoric on crime, while refusing to provide the resources that the justice system so desperately needs.
Given that health, housing, and social policy have been devolved for 25 years, it’s high time Wales is given powers over justice, so that we can create a justice system that genuinely seeks to rehabilitate offenders and create a safer society, rather than being a cynical tool for weak Westminster politicians to use for political ends.
Last year Keir Starmer welcomed the findings of a report from Gordon Brown’s Commission on the UK’s Future which recommended that Wales should get responsibility for youth justice and probation. But the Welsh government wants a future Labour government to go further and full responsibility for justice and policing to be devolved to Wales.
Updated
Growing number of people face 18-month waits for NHS care in England
Stuart Hoddinott, an NHS specialist at the Institute for Government thinktank, has a good thread on X looking at why hospital waiting lists are still going up. It starts here.
New data out today shows the elective waiting list grew to 7.75m in August, up from 7.68m in July
Another record high, and 531k higher than in January when Sunak pledged to bring down waiting lists
What’s driving the increase? And what’s happening to other parts of the list?
🚨New data out today shows the elective waiting list grew to 7.75m in August, up from 7.68m in July
— Stuart Hoddinott (@StuartHoddinott) October 12, 2023
Another record high, and 531k higher than in January when Sunak pledged to bring down waiting lists
What's driving the increase? And what's happening to other parts of the list? pic.twitter.com/DRfxaR38F1
He says this is the first time since this data started being collected that the number of people waiting more than 52, 65 and 78 weeks all increased.
Concerningly for the NHS, the number of people waiting more than 52, 65, and 78 weeks all increased in August – something that has only happened once in this time series
78 weeks grew from 7,289 to 8,998 despite the target to eliminate all by the end of March this year
Concerningly for the NHS, the number of people waiting more than 52, 65, and 78 weeks all increased in August - something that has only happened once in this time series
— Stuart Hoddinott (@StuartHoddinott) October 12, 2023
78 weeks grew from 7,289 to 8,998 despite the target to eliminate all by the end of March this year pic.twitter.com/QumzJSa0fU
The NHS data is here. And here is Andrew Gregory’s story about the figures.
Updated
MoJ says 'the most serious offenders' will still be jailed - while not denying judges told prisons too full
The Ministry of Justice has issued an updated response to the Times story staying judges are being told to delay sentencing hearings because prisons are full. (See 8.56am.) An MoJ spokesperson said:
We are categorical that the most serious offenders should be sent to prison and that anyone deemed a risk to public safety is remanded in custody while awaiting trial. Reports to the contrary are false …
The lord chancellor [Alex Chalk, the justice secretary] will be meeting criminal justice partners later today and setting out a programme of reform in the coming days to ensure that we can continue to strengthen public protection by locking up the most dangerous criminals.
This does not really contradict the Times story, which says that as a result of overcrowding judges are being asked to delay sentencing hearings for criminals who are on bail. People deemed “the most serious offenders” tend not to get bail anyway. And the Times did not say that the courts would stop remanding dangerous suspects in custody while they are awaiting trial; it just said they might have to be held in cells in magistrates courts.
Updated
Humza Yousaf says, if Lisa Cameron defecting to Tories, she probably never believed in Scottish independence in first place
Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister and the SNP leader, has said that he was not surprised that Lisa Cameron has defected.
He also said that she should resign, and that if she was joining the Conservatives, she probably never believed in Scottish independence in the first place. He told PA Media:
It’s the least surprising news I’ve had as leader of the SNP, I must confess.
Lisa Cameron should do the honourable thing, she should resign her seat.
She should do the honourable thing by her constituents, who voted for an SNP MP, did not vote for a Conservative MP.
Yousaf claimed he was confident that the SNP would win a byelection in her East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow constituency. And he went on:
To see somebody who claims to have supported Scottish independence cross the floor to the Conservative and Unionist party betrays the fact that she probably never believed in the cause in the first place.
Updated
Updated
Scientists suffered abuse during Covid because government let people get 'unbalanced' view of their influence, inquiry told
Sage scientists suffered alarming levels of public abuse during the pandemic because the government mishandled the sharing of information, the Covid inquiry heard this morning.
Dr Stuart Wainwright, the director of the Government Office for Science, criticised the government’s decision to publish minutes from Sage meetings but not the advice they received on economic and operational policy advice.
The abuse scientists received “as a direct result” of that decision was so bad that GO Science, the organisation supporting the chief scientific adviser, had to provide extensive support to scientists. “We had to provide communication support, well-being support, counselling, security advice and security support to scientists as a direct result of the government’s decision,” he told the inquiry.
All Sage scientists gave their time to the government for free during the pandemic, some of them taking leave from their jobs to do so. But the abuse received was so extensive that, Wainwright said: “I worry it may have put off other academics to come forward to help government in future crises.”
He also said that the policy of only publishing the scientific advice could have led to an “unbalanced understanding in parliament and in the media” about the role science took in the creation of pandemic policies.
Wainwright also criticised the government’s decision-making processes during the crisis: “Objectives remained unclear after mid-March [2020],” he said.
There were not enough people in the cabinet with scientific skills, meaning that advisers’ ability to provide useful answers were severely hampered by poorly formulated questions.
That lack of expertise at the heart of government particularly affected plans for non-pharmaceutical interventions, he said, including the provision of PPE.
The commissioning of advice did get quite chaotic and poorly formulated from March through into the summer. It got back on track in the autumn.
Wainwright also said that the government was too slow to seek advice from Sage when advanced, difficult policy issues had to be made. He highlighted an instance when Sage was commissioned to investigate the issue of students returning to university when it was “almost too late”.
Updated
Council spending on accommodating homeless families in England up 33% in past year, figures show
English councils’ spending on bed and breakfast accommodation for homeless families has soared to over £500m a year – a 33% annual rise, according to the latest official figures to expose England’s deepening housing crisis.
The soaring spending was branded “outrageous” and “illogical” by homelessness campaigners. It is enough to build around 5,000 homes.
“We simply can’t keep throwing money at grim B&Bs and hostels instead of focusing on helping families into a home,” said Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter.
Overall spending on temporary accommodation for homeless families is also up 9% to £1.7bn a year – a sum sufficient to fund the infrastructure for a 70,000-home new town, of the type proposed this week by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer. Spending on temporary accommodation overall has more than doubled in seven years.
Shelter said the rise was because homelessness had reached such a scale that councils were struggling to procure self-contained temporary accomodation, let alone settled homes. Housing benefit rates have been frozen since 2020 while private rents have risen sharply.
“The number of people living in temporary accommodation or facing homelessness is becoming a growing humanitarian crisis in England, particularly for families living together in single room B&Bs,” said John Glenton, executive director of Riverside Care and Support, which provides homelessness services.
Sources working with homeless people said the number of people arriving as refugees from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and from the small boats may be increasing pressure in the system that is already weak because of a shortage of social housing.
Updated
If you want to know why the prisons are full, Danny Shaw, the former BBC home affairs correspondent, has posted a very good thread on X explaining why. It starts here.
NEW: 13 reasons why @MoJGovUK ran out of room in prisons:
* It closed 10,700 places - but opened only 11,000, since 2010
* It introduced tougher sentencing - ignoring impact on prisoner numbers
* It was slow to get prisons built - 20,000 places promised, only 5,200 delivered
NEW: 13 reasons why @MoJGovUK ran out of room in prisons:
— Danny Shaw (@DannyShawNews) October 11, 2023
* It closed 10,700 places - but opened only 11,000, since 2010
* It introduced tougher sentencing - ignoring impact on prisoner numbers
* It was slow to get prisons built - 20,000 places promised, only 5,200 delivered
And here is one of his concluding posts.
* Ministers didn’t heed warnings from @PGA_Prisons @POAUnion & @MoJGovUK forecasters about impending shortage of places, preferring to focus on pointless Parole Board reform, ratcheting up rhetoric on sentencing & @AlexChalkChelt’s desperate plan to use jails abroad …
* Ministers didn’t heed warnings from @PGA_Prisons @POAUnion & @MoJGovUK forecasters about impending shortage of places, preferring to focus on pointless Parole Board reform, ratcheting up rhetoric on sentencing & @AlexChalkChelt’s desperate plan to use jails abroad …
— Danny Shaw (@DannyShawNews) October 11, 2023
Starmer's local radio interview round - verdict
Keir Starmer’s BBC local radio interview round (see 12.36pm) was notably more successful than Rishi Sunak’s equivalent one just before the Conservative party conference. After one of them, a BBC journalist said that had come across “very measured, very relaxed” and that he did not keep interrupting, like Sunak, who had some very difficult encounters with the the local radio presenters. (See here, or here, or here.) Perhaps that was because they were a bit more deferential, although there was little evidence of that. (On Radio Kent Starmer was criticised for not mentioning Kent in his conference speech.) Mainly it was because Sunak has a much harder record to defend, while Starmer has been working on making his policy platform bombproof.
Starmer was also well briefed, and never sounded like one of those politicians on a media round who has forgotten who they’re addressing. On Radio Kent, when it was put to him that Labour was neglecting the county, he said that he had grown up on the Surrey/Kent border and that he had played in the Kent boys football league. And, on Radio WM (West Midlands), Starmer was able to recall one playing as a ringer for the Radio WM team in a match, because one of his best friends worked there. Amazingly, he was able to recall the match. He had a long shot from just over the half-way line that missed, he recalled.
Starmer says he would like next Labour leader to be a woman
Keir Starmer has said he would like the next Labour leader to be a woman.
However, despite also saying he would to see this happen “pretty soon”, he also hinted that he was hoping there would not be a vacancy until the 2030s.
Starmer made the comment in an interview with BBC Radio London, one of eight BBC local radio stations he spoke to this morning.
When the presenter Salma El-Wardany pointed out that Labour is the only non-fringe party in the UK that has never had a woman as leader, and asked if he agreed the next Labour leader should not be a man, Starmer replied:
Yes, I agree. We need a female leader. I want to ensure that I win the election and that as prime minister I’m able to deliver for the whole of the country. But the Labour party has been the champion of equality for years.
We’ve got very strong women, I should say. Look at Angela Rayner, the deputy leader, very, very powerful – an incredible story, Angela coming from very working class roots to becoming deputy leader of the Labour party and she will be deputy prime minister if we win the election.
Rachel Reeves – if we get into power, and I know we have to win every vote – will be the first ever female chancellor in 800 years of chancellors. So I think we can smash a few ceilings along the way.
But I’m not going to duck your question. The Labour party does need a female leader, erm, you know, pretty soon and obviously I need to win the election, we need to put in place our decade of national renewal, and move on from there.
Starmer was a bit hesitant when he said “pretty soon”. At the Labour conference he implied that he was hoping to be in power for a decade, and so any woman hoping to replace him may have a long wait.
During the media round, Starmer also said that he would have liked the extension of Ulez, the ultra-low emissions zone in London, to have been implemented in a “more proportionate” way that did not cost some drivers so much.
And he said that Labour would not support the building of new homes without the right infrastructure, such as transport and GP surgeries, going in too.
Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Updated
The protester arrested after disrupting Keir Starmer’s speech at the Labour party conference has been bailed pending further enquiries, according to Merseyside police. The 28-year-old from Surrey was arrested on suspicion of assault, breach of the peace and causing public nuisance, PA Media reports.
Sunak tells Egyptian president he backs trying to keep Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza open
Rishi Sunak has offered support to try to keep the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza open for humanitarian reasons in a call with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Downing Street said. No 10 said:
The prime minister spoke to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi this morning, following the terrorist atrocity carried out by Hamas in Israel.
He expressed his condolences for the Egyptians who have lost their lives, along with so many others.
The prime minister said that terrorism is an evil which must be confronted, wherever we find it. It was also important that the conflict did not spread further. He noted the importance of Egypt’s historic role in the region, including in seeking de-escalation.
The prime minister acknowledged the challenging security situation at the Rafah border crossing [the only crossing between Egypt and Gaza]. He offered the UK’s support to try to manage this situation and keep the route open for humanitarian and consular reasons, including for British nationals.
This is from Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, on the hospital waiting times in England reaching a new record high. (See 11.18am.)
One in seven people in England are waiting for NHS treatment, in pain and discomfort. Many are unable to work, others will have undiagnosed conditions worsening while they wait.
The longer the Conservatives are in office, the longer patients wait.
Labour will provide an extra two million appointments a year so patients are treated on time. We will invest £1.1 billion a year to pay staff overtime for evening and weekend working, paid for by abolishing the non-don tax status, so the NHS is working around the clock to beat the Tory backlog.
NHS waiting lists in England reach new record high at 7.75m
NHS waiting lists have hit a new record high, with more people facing long waits, PA Media reports. PA says:
Figures for the NHS in England show 7.75 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of August, up from 7.68 million in July.
This is the highest number since records began in August 2007 and comes despite Rishi Sunak saying cutting waiting lists is one of his priorities.
The government said ongoing strikes by doctors are having a significant impact on the ability to bring down waits.
The data also shows 8,998 people in England were waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end of August, up from 7,289 at the end of July.
The Government and NHS England set the ambition of eliminating all waits of over 18 months by April this year, excluding exceptionally complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.
A total of 396,643 people in England have also been waiting longer than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment as of the end of August, up from 389,952 at the end of July.
The ambition is to eliminate all waits of over a year by March 2025.
Meanwhile, the number of people waiting longer than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted was 33,107 in September, up 15% from 28,859 in August but below the 54,573 in December 2022.
The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission has also increased, from 120,120 in August to 125,829 in September, a rise of 5%.
Some 71.6% of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 73.% in August.
The NHS recovery plan sets a target of March 2024 for 76% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
SNP challenges Lisa Cameron to resign and allow byelection
Here is Severin Carrell’s report on the defection of the SNP MP Lisa Cameron to the Conservatives.
Severin says the SNP is challenging Cameron to resign her seat and allow a byelection. He writes:
Her announcement came on the day she was expected to hear she had not been selected by the SNP to defend her seat of East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow at the next election.
The SNP’s new candidate will be challenged for the seat by Joani Reid, the granddaughter of Jimmy Reid – known for leading a work-in at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders in 1971 – who is standing for Scottish Labour.
A hero to many on the left in Scotland, Reid became an SNP member and supporter of independence before he died in 2010, while his granddaughter is a Labour councillor in Lewisham, south-east London.
Cameron’s former party is about to gather for its annual conference in Aberdeen, its first under the leadership of Humza Yousaf, and was already shaken by its heavy defeat to Labour in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection.
The SNP called on Cameron to resign as an MP and allow a byelection. “The people of East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow will be appalled they are now represented by a Conservative and Unionist MP,” a party spokesperson said.
“Lisa Cameron should now do the right thing and step down to allow a byelection.
“Her constituents elected an SNP MP not a Tory, and they deserve to have the democratic opportunity to elect a hardworking SNP MP who will put the interests of Scotland first. On a personal basis, we wish her well.”
At the last general election Cameron had a majority of more than 13,000 in East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, with 46% of the vote. Labour was in second place, with 23%, and the Conservatives in third place, with 21%.
Updated
Labour claims Lisa Cameron defection shows SNP 'falling apart'
Scottish Labour says the defection of Lisa Cameron shows the SNP is “falling apart”. Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, issued this statement.
This bizarre move shows that the SNP is falling apart before our eyes.
The fact is that the SNP and the Tories are two sides of the same coin - putting the cause of division before the needs of the people.
While the SNP and Tories compete to out-do each other in incompetence, Labour is focused on rebuilding our country and getting Britain its future back.
The SNP regularly accuse Labour and the Tories of being two sides of the same coin (particularly because of Keir Starmer’s position on Brexit and on the two-child benefit cap), and so Labour probably enjoys the chance to throw the jibe back at them.
Rishi Sunak has welcomed the defection of Lisa Cameron from the SNP (see 9.59am), praising her as “brave and committed”. In a statement he said:
I am delighted that Lisa Cameron has decided to join the Conservatives. She is a brave and committed constituency MP.
Lisa is right that we should aim to do politics better, with more empathy and less division and a dedication to always doing what we think is right.
I look forward to working with her on the disability issues she has championed so passionately in Parliament, and on the issues that really matter to her constituent’s in East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow.
Her decision is a sign that we are the party for those who will make constructive, long term decisions for a brighter future for the whole of the UK.
The Scottish Conservatives have welcomed the defection of Lisa Cameron. (See 9.59am.) This is from Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader.
It’s great to have Lisa Cameron on board.
The @ScotTories will stand up for everyone who has been forgotten by the SNP to get the focus onto Scotland’s real priorities
It’s great to have Lisa Cameron on board.
— Douglas Ross MP MSP (@Douglas4Moray) October 12, 2023
The @ScotTories will stand up for everyone who has been forgotten by the SNP to get the focus onto Scotland’s real priorities. https://t.co/9GcMJYbTDC
And these are from Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Conservative MSP.
Wow! Welcome aboard @DrLisaCameron. As the SNP continues to implode, this is another signal that @ScotTories are making gains at their expense.
Wow! Welcome aboard @DrLisaCameron. As the SNP continues to implode, this is another signal that @ScotTories are making gains at their expense. https://t.co/2IvaaAKkgk
— Murdo Fraser (@murdo_fraser) October 12, 2023
Now we have 7 @ScotTories MPs at Westminster. Our numbers will grow and grow. Welcome @DrLisaCameron the first of many!
Now we have 7 @ScotTories MPs at Westminster. Our numbers will grow and grow. Welcome @DrLisaCameron the first of many!
— Murdo Fraser (@murdo_fraser) October 12, 2023
Updated
SNP MP Lisa Cameron defects to Tories with attack on 'toxic and bullying' culture in SNP group at Westminster
Lisa Cameron MP has quit the SNP and joined the Scottish Conservatives in a dramatic and unprecedented defection, PA Media reports. PA says:
The East Kilbride MP’s change of party comes on the day she was facing a selection battle to be the candidate in the west of Scotland seat of East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow.
The Scottish Daily Mail reports she had complained of “toxic and bullying” treatment within the SNP.
The MP said she has received support from Rishi Sunak after her mental wellbeing deteriorated in recent weeks, but has had no contact from the SNP leadership.
Cameron has previously said she was a victim of “group bullying” at Westminster and suffered panic attacks as a result.
She claimed she was shunned by other SNP MPs at Westminster after challenging the support given to former chief whip Patrick Grady – who was suspended from the House of Commons and apologised in Parliament after being found to have acted inappropriately towards a party staffer.
Last month, it emerged a Scottish government minister had backed another party worker, Grant Costello, who was challenging Dr Cameron to be the next SNP candidate in her seat at the general election.
Cameron told the Scottish Daily Mail: “I do not feel able to continue in what I have experienced as a toxic and bullying SNP Westminster group, which resulted in my requiring counselling for a period of 12 months in parliament and caused significant deterioration in my health and wellbeing as assessed by my GP, including the need for antidepressants.
“I will never regret my actions in standing up for a victim of abuse at the hands of an SNP MP last year, but I have no faith remaining in a party whose leadership supported the perpetrator’s interests over that of the victim’s and who have shown little to no interest in acknowledging or addressing the impact.
“It is also true that I have received no contact from party leadership in the past weeks, despite members of every other main political party contacting me to offer support and compassion during what has been an extremely difficult time.”
She praised Sunak’s “positive” leadership, saying it contrasted to that of the SNP group.
Met says it will not interpret showing support for Palestinian people as backing Hamas, and waving their flag not an offence
The Metropolitan police says it will not interpret support for the Palestinian people as support for Hamas, and that it does not regard waving a Palestinan flag, on its own, as an offence.
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, sent a letter to chief constables earlier this week urging them to protect Jewish communities from intimidation or aggression triggered as a result of the Israel-Hamas war. In it she suggested that in some contexts waving a Palestinian flag could be an offence. She said:
Behaviours that are legitimate in some circumstances, for example the waving of a Palestinian flag, may not be legitimate such as when intended to glorify acts of terrorism.
Nor is it acceptable to drive through Jewish neighbourhoods, or single out Jewish members of the public, to aggressively chant or wave pro-Palestinian symbols at.
In an interview yesterday Keir Starmer suggested Braverman was right to say that in some circumstances waving a flag could be an offence.
Now the Met has clarified that showing support for the Palestinian people, on its own, does not constitute an offence, and that the Met will not interpret it as support for Hamas (proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK).
In a letter to London’s Jewish community, Met deputy commissioner Dame Lynne Owens said:
What we cannot do is interpret support for the Palestinian cause more broadly as automatically being support for Hamas or any other proscribed group, even when it follows so soon after an attack carried out by that group and when to many the link seems indisputable.
An expression of support for the Palestinian people more broadly, including flying the Palestinian flag, does not, alone, constitute a criminal offence.
Of course behaviour at protests goes beyond what is and isn’t seen as support for proscribed groups. I know that in the past we have seen people use these opportunities to make statements that are quite clearly antisemitic and a hate crime.
Abuse or intimidation that is religiously motivated will not be accepted and officers will act when they see it.
Owens stressed that support for Hamas is an offence and Met officers would take action.
London is expected to see protests this week triggered by the crisis and is home to a Jewish community which in the past has felt under protected by police.
Updated
Labour says prison overcrowding crisis 'truly, truly shocking' and 'damning indictment' of government's record
Labour says the Times report saying judges have been told to delay sentencing hearings because the jails are full is “truly, truly shocking” and a “damning indictment” of the government’s record.
This is from Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary.
It’s a damning indictment of the state of our prisons that this Tory govt is unable to either get criminals locked up or keep them there.
The government has been warned time and again but instead of addressing the challenges, they have driven the justice system into the ground.
It’s a damning indictment of the state of our prisons that this Tory govt is unable to either get criminals locked up or keep them there.
— Shabana Mahmood MP (@ShabanaMahmood) October 11, 2023
The government has been warned time and again but instead of addressing the challenges, they have driven the justice system into the ground. https://t.co/kwcXQ007i3
And there are from Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary.
Truly, truly shocking.
Report says; “Rapists and burglars will be spared jail from next week after judges told prisons are full”
Truly, truly shocking.
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) October 11, 2023
Report says; “Rapists and burglars will be spared jail from next week after judges told prisons are full” https://t.co/ct55ZPBNn9
This is incredibly serious Tory Government failure as @ShabanaMahmood has said.
We need urgent answers from Tory Ministers on what risks are to public safety & on the shameful injustice for victims
This is incredibly serious Tory Government failure as @ShabanaMahmood has said.
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) October 11, 2023
We need urgent answers from Tory Ministers on what risks are to public safety & on the shameful injustice for victims https://t.co/YnqEl4BZ0C
Ministry of Justice says criminal barristers' strike partly to blame for jail overcrowding
Just as the government has said that NHS staff going on strike are partly to blame for rising hospital waiting lists, the Ministry of Justice says jail overcrowding is partly due to criminal barristers going on strike (which held up trials, leading to people spending longer on remand). In a response to the Times’ story, the MoJ said:
Our first priority is to keep the public safe from dangerous criminals. That is why we have ended automatic halfway release for serious sexual and violent criminals and increased the average time spent in prison by three years — cutting violent crime by nearly 50 per cent since 2010.
However, the criminal justice system has seen unprecedented growth in the prison population, following the pandemic and barristers’ strike, particularly among those awaiting trial, with 6,000 more prisoners on remand than pre-pandemic.
The Prison Service has already put in place measures such as rapid deployment cells and doubling up cells to help manage these pressures, and the government is carrying out the biggest prison building campaign since the Victorian era to build 20,000 new places, making sure we always have the places we need.
At the Conservative party conference Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, said he was in talks with other European countries to see if the UK can rent space in their jails for prisoners from England and Wales.
Minister refuses to deny judges have been told to delay sentencing offenders because prisons full
Good morning. There’s a remarkable story in the Times this morning which would probably be leading the bulletins if it were not for the Israel-Hamas war, and it is one that reinforces the central claim of the Labour conference this week – that the Conservative party has neglected public services. The Times says that from Monday judges in England and Wales won’t be able to send offenders to prison because the jails are full.
In their story Catherine Baksi, Jonathan Ames and Matt Dathan report:
Convicted rapists and burglars will be temporarily spared jail from next week after judges were told that prisons are full.
Crown court judges have been ordered to delay sentencing hearings, The Times has learnt, as the prison population has reached bursting point.
Lord Justice Edis, the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, has ordered that sentencing of convicted criminals who are currently on bail should be delayed from Monday.
The Times also understands, from crown court judges who have been issued with the guidance, that as soon as next week some prisoners will also be released early under proposals from justice ministers.
The Times: Israeli coalition ready to invade #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/sN59t7nCmu
— George Mann (@sgfmann) October 11, 2023
The Times says that on Friday last week there were 88,016 people in jails in England and Wales, just below the capacity level which is 88,670. It says judges expect people held on remand for serious offences ahead of trial to be detained in cells in magistrates’ courts.
The Ministry of Justice has neither confirmed nor denied the story. And this morning Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has also refused to deny the story. He has been doing a media round to promote measures to stop vapes being promoted to children, and when asked about the Times story, he conceded the prison system was under pressure. He said:
It’s a long-standing convention ministers don’t comment on leaks, and [Alex Chalk, the justice secretary] will make a statement to the house on this on Monday.
We have the fastest rollout of prison places. We are opening an extra 100 a week, we’ve already opened 5,500 of those.
But there is pressure on the system, as there is in Ireland, as there is in France and a number of countries, as a consequence of the fact that jury trials were delayed during Covid, and that has meant there are additional numbers on remand.
Decisions on sentencing are taken by the judiciary independently. What the government is doing is expanding at pace the number of prison places that we have.
There will be no statement in the Commons today because parliament is still in recess. There is not much in the diary. But Keir Starmer has been doing an interview round on regional radio, which I will cover soon, and there is bound to be more reaction to the prisons story.
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