Boris’s rage at killer’s early release
PM’s pledge to rip up human rights laws after terrorist Khan was let free to go on rampage and kill two
BORIS JOHNSON warned last night that atrocities such as the London Bridge terror attack would be more difficult to avert if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister spoke out amid growing outrage over the early release from prison of Usman Khan, whose rampage on Friday came after he served less than half his sentence for terror offences.
Mr Johnson, who visited the scene of the attacks with Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday, said if the electorate returned him with a majority, he would take advantage of the UK’s post-Brexit freedoms to reform the human rights laws.
He said the laws made it more difficult for the security services to protect the public and blamed the last Labour Government for introducing automatic early release in 2008. Mr Johnson complained that his efforts to ‘keep violent offenders and terrorists in jail longer and end the automatic early release system’ since becoming Prime Minister had been thwarted by ‘the broken hung parliament that was preoccupied with blocking Brexit’.
He said: ‘What I saw on Friday has made me angry – it’s absolutely clear that we can’t carry on with the failed approaches of the past.
‘We must reform human rights laws to shift the balance in favour of our security and intelligence services... our laws are constrained, for example, by the “right to private life” which limits surveillance of terrorists, and recent court cases have placed unacceptable limits on our intelligence services.’
Tory aides are scarred by the memory of the 2017 London Bridge terror attack, which led to the suspension of the Election campaign – and gave Mr Corbyn the chance to close the gap on Theresa May.
For this campaign, Mr Johnson has no compunction about characterising Mr Corbyn as a risk to the safety of the British public.
The Prime Minister said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn is setting out plans to weaken our system and make it more difficult for our security services to stop people who want to do us harm. He wants to give more power to human rights lawyers, which would make us less safe.
‘Jeremy Corbyn has a totally different view of security and a totally different set of policies. I do not believe he can provide the leadership on security this country needs.’ Mr Johnson and Ms Patel were joined by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick on London Bridge yesterday.
The Prime Minister told journalists: ‘It’s early days and there’s a lot of investigations that need to be done, but it is clear... it does not make sense for us as a society to be putting people convicted of terrorist offences, of serious violent offences, out on early release.’
Tory strategists intend to use the coming days to highlight the differences between the Labour manifesto, which pledges to ‘ensure the powers exercised by the security services are proportionate and used in accordance with human rights’ and ‘end indefinite detention’, with Mr Johnson’s plans to ‘update the Human Rights Act so that our security services can defend our country against terrorism’.
The Tory manifesto states: ‘The ability of our security services to defend us against terrorism and organised crime is critical.
‘We will update the Human Rights Act and administrative law to ensure that there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our vital national security and effective government’.
Ms Patel blamed Labour for the fact that Khan – who was jailed for terror offences in 2012 – had been released on licence in December 2018 after his initial sentence was reduced on appeal.
After Labour’s Yvette Cooper asked on Twitter why Khan was released early, Ms Patel replied: ‘Because legislation brought in by your government in 2008 meant that dangerous terrorists had to
automatically be released after half of their jail term.
‘The Conservatives changed the law in 2012 to end your automatic release policy but Khan was convicted before this.’
The Parole Board said it had no involvement in his release, with Khan appearing ‘ to have been released automatically on licence (as required by law)’. Met Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said last night that Khan had been subject to an ‘extensive list of licence conditions’ on his release and that ‘to the best of my knowledge’ he was complying.
Mr Corbyn concentrated yesterday on what he said appeared to be the failure of the prison service. ‘Was he [Khan] given a deradicalisation programme?’ the Labour leader asked. ‘If prisons continue to be understaffed, overcrowded and with a lot of prisoners not being properly supervised, then I think there is a danger to everybody in the future.’
THE revelation that the London Bridge killer was a convicted terrorist, who had been released ridiculously early from prison, really ought to concentrate minds among politicians of all parties.
The policy of early release is questionable in all cases. It forces judges to lie when they pronounce sentence, because almost nobody will serve more than half of the term handed out. It results i n criminals spending such short times in prison that they can neither be deterred nor rehabilitated.
But in the case of the killer Usman Khan – actually convicted of plotting terrible violence, and supposedly locked away for many years – there is a far greater issue.
The protection of the public has been sacrificed as part of a long-running cost-cutting exercise under way for more than 15 years, under Labour, coalition and Tory governments.
So far – and voters should take careful note of this – the only mind that seems to have been concentrated by this event is that of Boris Johnson. The Prime Minister yesterday said, in quite unequivocal terms to which he has clearly bound himself, that the system of early release, as it stands, must end, and will end if he is given the power to do so.
This has to be one of the most important events of the Election campaign – a genuinely serious response to a terrible event.
It would be hard for Labour or the Liberal Democrats, with their endless records of weakness and retreat on criminal justice, to match Mr Johnson’s promise. It will be quite unthinkable for Jeremy Corbyn to do so. His long sojourn on the wild fringes of the Left has involved scores of unwise statements and actions, which make it impossible for him even to appear as a credible friend of tough justice or a credible foe of terrorism – let alone for him actually to be either of these things.
Here, for all serious people concerned with the safety of the country, is a totally clear dividing line between the parties on a major issue of urgent policy.
British governments have for many years been two- faced about punishing criminals. While Home Secretaries and Prime Ministers have rightly supported public calls for tougher sentencing, the Justice Department has done all it can to keep numbers down in our bursting prisons.
Judges and magistrates are under huge pressure to pass non-custodial sentences, and to keep prison terms short. This has gone much too far. Now is the chance to end it.
Boris Johnson’s completely straightforward words yesterday are solid- gold, bankable pledges. First: ‘We must keep violent offenders and terrorists in jail longer and end the automatic early release system.’ And second: ‘If you are convicted of a serious terrorist offence, there should be a mandatory minimum sentence of 14 years.’
All that is necessary for these sensible promises to become reality is for there to be a majority Conservative government. All that is necessary for them to be pushed to one side is a hung Parliament or a Labour majority.
The choice has always been clear. Over Brexit, over the economy, over taxation, over the NHS and keeping the Union together, Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have been the sensible party. Now, by responding with such resolute sureness to the horror of terrorist murder on our streets, Mr Johnson has become the only wise choice for anyone – and that is surely all of us – concerned with national security and the fight against violent crime.