Wes Streeting has been forced into a grovelling apology, after he was caught on a hot mic mocking the government’s own early-release scheme, one that could see thousands of criminals walking free from prison in the coming months.
The newly reinstated Defence Secretary was overheard on Tuesday, chatting with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and the freshly appointed Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, when his microphone picked up remarks that were, frankly, hard to spin as anything other than tone-deaf.
According to Metro, which first reported the exchange, Streeting told Mahmood that Norris was now “the enemy,” adding that he “wants to let them all out.”
The comment lands awkwardly, to put it mildly, given that Labour’s own Sentencing Act is due to come into force in September, and is expected to see around 6,000 offenders released early as ministers scramble to relieve overcrowded prisons.
Streeting, who rejoined Andy Burnham’s reshuffled Cabinet on Monday, took to X in an attempt at damage control, insisting there was no malice behind the remark and claiming it was simply an echo of an old exchange between former Conservative prime minister Theresa May and the late Tory chancellor Kenneth Clarke. He wrote that he hoped people would see there was no ill intent behind the ribbing, and offered an apology for any offence caused by what he called a moment of levity.
Mahmood, for her part, offered a similarly practised line, insisting the joke should not be mistaken for a lack of seriousness on the issue.
Whether the public will be quite so forgiving is another matter entirely. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, was quick to seize on the episode, accusing Burnham’s Cabinet of laughing about early releases while, she said, the Conservatives were the ones actually listening to victims and opposing what she branded a disgraceful policy.
The timing could scarcely be worse for Labour. The Telegraph revealed on Tuesday that two of the men convicted over the killing of Pc Andrew Harper are among those who may qualify for early release under the scheme. Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, jailed in 2020 for the manslaughter of the 28-year-old officer, dragged him for more than a mile along country roads after his ankles became trapped in a towrope, and were sentenced to 13 years. Both were 17 at the time of the killing.
Harper’s mother has described the prospect of an early release for her son’s killers as an insult, and the Ministry of Justice has confirmed that both men could indeed walk free at the halfway point of their sentences.
Norris, thrust into the justice brief and now apparently cast as Streeting’s punchline, has faced calls to think again on the scheme. Asked about reports that the Prime Minister may be looking at excluding rapists and child groomers from early release, his spokesman offered little beyond the usual platitudes, insisting the government was focused on public safety and declining to comment further on what he called speculation.
For a party already under pressure over prison policy, a Cabinet minister joking about letting offenders out early is unlikely to inspire much confidence, however light-hearted the intention.
I voted Tory for 50 years. Last time I voted Reform. Next time I vote Restore When will the Tory party recover it’s balls?
Outlaw Islam in West until all religions are free in all 50 moslem countries: tolerance is a two-way street.