DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Feeble Andy Burnham is devoid of ideas

Published: 01:03, 12 August 2026 | Updated: 02:24, 12 August 2026 A deeply unsatisfactory pattern is emerging in the way the new Prime Minister approaches a crisis. Labour's egregious prisons early release scheme, predictably, has hit the buffers. In response, Andy Burnham announced a review which led to certain categories of criminal being barred from receiving a sentence discount. But his changes did not go far enough and now he's scrabbling around for more in a most unstatesmanlike manner. Downing Street has disclosed that ministers will look at three possibilities to free up space in the jails – all of which experts resoundingly conclude are complete non-starters. The PM has even hinted at his frustration over the mishandling of the whole project by officials at the MoJ. These, by the way, are the people who pulled the wool over Shabana Mahmood's eyes when she was Justice Secretary and persuaded her that letting tens of thousands of criminals out of jail early was the only way to handle prison overcrowding. The three new options, undoubtedly drawn up by these same civil servants, are technical in nature and completely unimaginative. Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner pictured in Ilkeston, Derbyshire yesterday   'Nightingale' prisons for low-risk inmates are not among them, for some reason. Nor are leasing prison barges or empty cells in other countries, such as the Netherlands, where there is spare capacity. Mr Burnham is very rapidly discovering how the liberal 'Blob' that dominates Whitehall is not always his friend. More broadly, Labour has been in charge for more than two years but is still blaming the previous Tory administration for problems in the jails, and has spent all that time implementing a plan that is now imploding spectacularly. Last night, in an unprecedented move, 50 senior police officers voiced their grave concerns. But, as usual, this feeble Government will refuse to take responsibility – and is utterly bereft of any credible solutions. Challenged over the small boats crisis a fortnight ago, Mr Burnham insisted 'the plan is working'. Yesterday, however, he admitted: 'We will now change our tactics.' In the first 22 days of his premiership 3,000 small boat migrants reached Britain, compared with less than 2,300 in the same period under Sir Keir Starmer, including an obscene 'mega dinghy' with 230 aboard which pushed the grand total since the General Election past 80,000. It seems not even Mr Burnham believes his preposterous claim that he has a working plan if it now needs shaking up. For this Labour have no one but themselves to blame. The previous government spent two years battling to win legal challenges against their Rwanda asylum deal, which was finally ready to take off at the last election. But out of sheer spite and ideology-driven conceitedness, Labour scrapped Rwanda as one of their first acts in power – and instead embarked on a nebulous plan to 'smash the gangs'. Year-on-year arrivals are down, thankfully, but there is no guarantee that will remain the case as trafficking gangs seek ways to run rings around the police. The fact that this island nation cannot protect its own borders is a matter of constant bafflement – not to mention outrage – to most Britons. Inevitably, Mr Burnham and his gutless Home Secretary Ms Mahmood do not have what it takes to bring this crisis to an end. Tastes like home! First 100% British chocolate bar made since 1932 - using cocoa from Berkshire