Reform Demands Foreign Prisoners Be Sent Abroad
Reform UK called for foreign-national prisoners to be deported to serve their sentences abroad, arguing it would help end the emergency early-release scheme freeing inmates to ease overcrowding. Nigel Farage accused Andy Burnham of lacking the “imagination” to tackle what he called a prisons crisis. The government is under separate pressure over whether the killers of PC Andrew Harper could be freed early.
Britain’s jails are dangerously overcrowded, forcing ministers into emergency early releases that have thrown up a series of politically toxic cases. Reform’s proposal to remove foreign offenders taps a popular sentiment, though the practicalities — securing agreements with other countries and the legal hurdles — are formidable. The government insists it is tightening the scheme to exclude the most serious offenders, but is wrestling with a system near collapse. With immigration and law and order dominating the argument, the prisons crisis has become a defining test. Watch how the government responds to the pressure over both releases and deportations.