Tory MP tears into 'shambolic' Labour plan as thousands of criminals set to be released early

Matt Vickers has launched a scathing attack on Labour's "absolutely shambolic" plan to release thousands of prisoners early.

Speaking to GB News, the Shadow Home Office Minister declared that those convicted of the most serious crimes should be "locked up for longer", not released early.

Up to 6,000 criminals convicted of manslaughter, rape and sexual assault could be released early as part of Labour's prison scheme.

The first group of 700 prisoners will be released in September, with a similar number of criminals freed for each of the next nine months in a staggered release schedule.

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Reacting to the plans, Mr Vickers told GB News that the move is "absolutely shambolic" from the Government.

He said: "This is absolutely shambolic that the Government is deciding to let sexual and violent offenders out early, serving as little as half of the sentence they've been given by a judge. That is not on.

"When we were last in office, we built more prison places. We didn't build as many as we should have, perhaps, but we did build them."

The Tory MP defended his party further, stressing: "We put in place the biggest prison building programme since the Victorian era.

"We were opening additional prison places, but we made decisions along the way. When the pandemic struck, we made the decision not to let prisoners out early, as other countries did."

Mr Vickers also recalled the Tory policy to "toughen up" prison sentences, not shorten them.

He said: "We also made a decision to toughen up sentences. We gave sexual and violent offenders tougher sentences. We believe prison is part of the solution, we believe it's a deterrent. We also believe it has a role in public safety.

"We think people who do some of the most heinous and vile crimes should be locked up for longer. This Labour Government does not believe in that."

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Mr Vickers argued that under the Labour Government, both the country's prisons and policing are "going the wrong way".

He told GB News: "They've let huge numbers of people out of prison early already; they've accidentally let out prisoners as well.

"It's increased by about 125 per cent the number of people David Lammy's accidentally let out of prison. This is an utter shambles. Less time behind bars, fewer police on our streets – it's all going the wrong way."

Pushing back on Mr Vickers, host Ellie Costello argued that it is a result of "successive Governments" that the country is facing a prison and policing crisis.

Mr Vickers disagreed: "Not at all, not at all. We were not letting sexual and violent offenders out onto the streets after they'd served just 50 per cent of the sentence there were given.

"We toughened up. We actually extended the sentences. If you look back at what people were being sent away for, we toughened those sanctions up.

"We put people in prison for longer, the worst offenders, the worst of the worst, and they deserve to be behind bars."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the Government was "making sure punishment works to cut crime and strengthening supervision in the community – investing £700million into probation, recruiting 1,300 additional probation officers this year, and ensuring every prison leaver is tagged unless there is a clear reason not to".

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