Andy Burnham HAS found a way to stop PC Harper’s killers being freed early, ministers claim

Andy Burnham has found a way to prevent the early release from prison of PC Andrew Harper’s killers, ministers have claimed.

The Prime Minister is under huge pressure to block Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers from being freed under Labour‘s early release scheme.

Downing Street on Monday said it was ‘not possible’ to exempt ‘one or two offenders’ convicted of manslaughter from the early release scheme.

But less than 24 hours later, Angela Rayner, the Communities Secretary, said the Government would announce an exemption when Parliament returns from its summer break next month.

She told LBC this morning: ‘The Prime Minister is really clear, the Justice Secretary (Alex Norris) will come to Parliament in September to lay out our plans on how we keep the most serious criminals in jail.’

Asked to clarify if this included the killers of police officers, Ms Rayner replied: ‘Yes.

‘The Prime Minister is really clear that these people that have created the most abhorrent crimes should not be released early and that he wants to set out in September with the Justice Secretary how we can resolve this issue.’ 

Sally Jameson, a junior minister in Ms Rayner’s department, had earlier told Times Radio that a way to stop PC Harper’s killers being released early has been ‘identified’.

The Prime Minister is under huge pressure to block Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers from being freed under Labour’s early release scheme

It came as Debbie Adlam, the mother of PC Harper, revealed she had been contacted by Downing Street on Monday night.

She told BBC Breakfast: ‘I had an interview yesterday, and it obviously must have shown something because I then had a call from Downing Street quite late last night.

‘It’s just been up and down. It’s just the rollercoaster of just hope, not even more than that is really, really draining. We’ve now got a little bit of hope that we didn’t have before.’

Discussing the call with a member of the PM’s staff, Ms Adlam said: ‘She said that he wanted to convey that he wants to do everything that he can and has more hope now of finding a resolution to this to try and keep them in prison.

‘I think the fact that it’s actually come from Downing Street – I’ve got to try and have some faith in it, but at the same time, I have to protect my own feelings.’

Discussing the efforts to keep her son’s killers in jail, Ms Adlam said: ‘It feels like a hash. It feels like a rush job. It feels like nobody’s put enough effort into actually look for reasons or ways.

‘We are having to push on every level, and it just doesn’t feel like, as a British citizen, I shouldn’t be doing this.

‘They weren’t given extreme sentences, and I’m only asking for them to do what they were given.’

PC Harper was fatally injured when he got caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and was dragged down a country road as the killers fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in 2019.

Two out of three of PC Harper’s killers, Cole and Bowers, are set to be released half way through their 13-year sentences, after being convicted of manslaughter in 2020.

Some 5,000 people are expected to be released early under sentencing changes, down from 6,000 after some exemptions were announced as part of an urgent review of the scheme to tackle jail overcrowding.

Exemptions were made for those convicted of rape, serious child sex offences and grooming offences.

Last week, the Prime Minister said he had ‘pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing’ by making these exemptions.

However, more than 880,000 people have signed a petition calling for Pc Harper’s killers to remain in jail.