Streeting apologises after hot-mic joke about prisoner releases

Wes Streeting apologised after a hot-mic recorded him joking with Shabana Mahmood about the early release of prisoners and the new Justice Secretary, Alex Norris. Streeting was heard suggesting Norris was “the enemy now” and that he “wants to let them all out”, a remark that quickly widened into a test of ministerial discipline on one of the government’s most politically volatile justice issues.

Streeting said there was “no ill intent” behind the exchange and apologised for any offence caused, describing it as a moment of levity even as he stressed that the policy itself was serious. The recording came after Norris was seen by Streeting and Mahmood following the new Cabinet’s first meeting on Tuesday, after he had been appointed by the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, on Monday.

The joke landed badly because the early release scheme has become a symbol of strain inside the prison system. Sky News reported that around 1,750 offenders were being released early under government plans to tackle overcrowding, while separate reporting said more than 1,100 prison inmates were scheduled to be released early on 22 October 2024. Government figures said prisons had been operating at more than 99% capacity since the start of 2023, leaving ministers under pressure to free space before the system ran out of empty cells.

That pressure has already drawn the attention of senior police and security figures. Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, and an MI5 boss later raised concerns about the early-release proposals, adding to the political risk around a policy designed to manage overcrowding but vulnerable to public anger over safety.

The fallout was sharpened by allegations from Labour that ministers had covered up the scale of the problem and that some violent criminals had been released without proper risk assessment. Against that backdrop, a joke about letting prisoners out was always likely to be read as more than banter. It fed a broader question for the new government: whether its tone on justice matches the competence and caution it has promised on public trust.