Kemi Badenoch defends selection of man jailed for harassing Jewish MP in council election – UK politics live

In a lengthy social media post, the prime minister, Andy Burnham, has defended his decision to exclude those convicted of rape, serious child sexual offences and grooming from the early prison release scheme. But expressed regret that he couldn’t go “even further” as he will still allow domestic abusers and killers to go free, including two men jailed for their role in the death of PC Andrew Harper. Burnham, who is on holiday, said the move had to be made because the system is “now dangerously close to capacity and we are running the risk of new offenders not being incarcerated in a timely manner”. Burnham wrote: The truth is I wanted to go even further. I know there will be concerns about who will still be released early for other offences.

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