PM Andy Burnham rebukes ministers over prisoner release joke

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has rebuked some of his cabinet ministers after they were caught on camera sharing a joke about releasing prisoners.

In the footage, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting can be heard telling Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood that new Justice Secretary Alex Norris "wants to let them all out".

Streeting apologised for the remarks, which were first published by Metro journalist Craig Munro, after critics suggested he had been joking about the government's early prisoner release scheme.

Asked whether it was appropriate for his ministers to be joking about early release, Burnham told reporters: "No it's not, and certainly that's been acknowledged and apologies have been made."

The moment was captured on Tuesday, when broadcasters were invited to film members of Burnham's cabinet chatting ahead of their first meeting.

In the footage, Mahmood can be seen chatting with Streeting before breaking off to greet Norris, a former minister at the Home Office who was promoted to justice secretary by Burnham on Monday.

Streeting can then be heard joking to Mahmood that Norris is "the enemy now", to which she replies "no he's not".

Streeting goes on to say "he wants to let them all out", before Mahmood replies "You know who's boss!" and the pair share a laugh.

In a post on X, Streeting said he had been referencing a joke Theresa May used to make about Ken Clarke when the two of them occupied the same cabinet posts as Mahmood and Norris respectively in a Conservative government.

May has previously said that when she was home secretary, she would joke about Clarke: 'I locked 'em up and he let 'em out'".

He added: "I hope everyone can see there was no ill intent behind this ribbing of the new justice secretary.

"But I appreciate these are very serious issues and am sorry for any offence inadvertently caused by this moment of levity."

Mahmood released a similar comment, adding: "I appreciate this is an extremely serious issue and do not want anyone to mistake this moment of levity for a lack of serious intent."

But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused the pair of making light of the government's scheme to release some prisoners early to ease prison overcrowding, announced in 2024 when Mahmood was justice secretary.

"While Andy Burnham's cabinet are joking about letting criminals out of prison early, Conservatives are listening to victims and will continue to fight this disgusting policy," she wrote on X.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said it was "right" that Streeting had apologised.

"Those remarks don't reflect the seriousness with which all of them will approach matters relating to public safety and the prison system".

Shortly after coming to power in 2024, the Labour government announced emergency measures to release prisoners in England and Wales early to ease overcrowding, in a scheme that was later expanded.

Under the Sentencing Act, due to come into effect in September, some prisoners let out after serving a third of their sentence, while those who would previously have served two-thirds will instead be released after serving half of their sentence.