Raab must take blame for fiasco

Some crimes are so vile that those who commit them deserve a very long stretch behind bars. Such a crime led to the heartbreaking death of Baby P. And such a criminal was his vile mother Tracey Connelly, one of three people involved in the little boy’s tragic end.

Connelly was allowed out on licence once, but she misbehaved and was returned to jail.

The Parole Board ruled she should be let out again, to public outrage. Dominic Raab responded to that outcry by opposing Connelly’s release. So far so predictable.

Now the Sunday Mirror has learned that it was an official in Mr Raab’s own department who approved the Parole Board’s action.

Mr Raab did not tell MPs that when he stood up in the House of Commons to denounce it.

We now smell not just a whiff of hypocrisy but an overpowering stench of it.

And as so often with the Tories, they talk tough on crime, only to go weak on the causes of it. Just look at the mess they have made of the Met.

Sources close to the Justice Secretary say he was not aware of what his official had done until just before he was due to speak in the Commons.

That does not wash. As Secretary of State, the buck stops with him.