0:00
It's absolutely horrific, Tom. There is that desperate sense that many of us saw this coming
0:06
Many of us cried aloud and tried to warn people and say, you know, don't do this
0:11
just to fill up the prison with social media posters. I mean, can we remember that Lucy Connolly
0:15
was sentenced to over two years and seven months, I think? I can't remember what exactly it is
0:21
but it's a ridiculous sentence. And yet we're letting out people like this who do this
0:25
Now, if we can hold a Prime Minister responsible for parties by civil servants in Downing Street during lockdown that he didn't attend
0:33
then I'm afraid this Prime Minister has to be held responsible for this. This is a death that is directly attributable to his policies and his actions
0:41
It wasn't unforeseeable. Many of us foresaw it. And very sadly, it has happened. A totally unnecessary death that the Prime Minister is directly linked to
0:51
That is unbelievable. I've never known a sitting Prime Minister who we could directly link to a death
0:58
I mean Stephen he would say that he had to do this because the prison system was left in such a dire state that there simply weren enough spaces to keep people in Which is clearly tosh because if we can create Nightingale hospitals overnight we can create Nightingale prisons overnight
1:16
if we desperately need to keep prisoners in custody. We've got... I can't remember the actual stats
1:22
but thousands of foreign nationals who we could have deported in order to make space
1:27
About 12,000, I think. There were plenty of other options. There is no... And this is his favourite trick
1:33
is to say somebody else made... A bigger boy made me do it. That's basically his argument every time he gets found out
1:39
And just don't let him get away with this. There are always options for any competent prime minister
1:43
wielding a majority in the House of Commons. You know, this is a death that has needlessly occurred
1:50
of a victim because of the prime minister. And that is not something I've ever had to say
1:55
about Tony Blair or Gordon Brown or, you know, any of the others
1:59
This is just not... They've never been in this league. He should resign
2:03
Of course, this is a huge and weighty topic. The government were saying when they were doing
2:11
this early release scheme that they wouldn't involve violent criminals, that they would
2:15
check the background of those they were releasing Do you think that that was thoroughly done that there been some dreadful mistake or that that was perhaps less thoroughly done than it should have been
2:29
Well, how will we ever know the answer to that? And given the way that they all cover each other's
2:33
back, I'm not terribly confident that we would get an outcome. So the current
2:38
vogue is to call for an inquiry, but I just think that would be a waste of money
2:42
We know that a man has died. We know that the Prime Minister pushed this through
2:46
and we know that many of us were warning at the time that this was a terrible, terrible danger
2:50
And I think he needs to face accountability and responsibility. We need to grow up as a society
2:55
and prime ministers who do this need to resign, regardless of any party they come from
2:59
If a Tory prime minister ever did this, I'd be saying exactly the same thing
3:03
If a Lib Dem coalition, whatever, we just need to have some standards in public life
3:08
And this is well shocking and well short of those standards. Yeah, I mean, it's clear that we did let out scumbags
3:16
And I remember the women's campaigners particularly concerned about domestic abusers being allowed out too
3:22
Stephen Barrett, thank you very much indeed. You're a barrister and writer. Thank you very much
3:26
But it is also true that for decades we had not built a prison of any decent size There was a prison building programme under the previous Conservative government that kept being delayed and delayed
3:38
and delayed. Whenever a prison was proposed to be built in an area, there was a local
3:42
campaign to stop it. And the government perhaps listened too much, didn't override local concerns
3:48
refused to build extra prisons, expanded the population by millions, and the prison population
3:53
stayed flat. I mean, it was an extraordinary dereliction of duty from the previous government as well as this one
3:59
New one today, though. A green one as well. Eco-friendly, which is good. 1,500 places, I think
4:05
It's good that the prisoners are having state-of-the-art eco-facilities. We should say that the Ministry of Justice has commented on this issue
4:16
They say our thoughts today are with the family and friends of Lewis Bell, the victim
4:20
This government inherited prisons days from collapse. Had that happened, the police would have been forced to stop making arrests
4:27
and the public would have been put at unconscionable risk. We had no choice but to introduce an emergency early release programme
4:33
We did so with protections in place, including exclusions for those serving for serious violent crimes
4:38
The MOJ said the case would be investigated fully as a serious further offence. OK
