The Telegraph: British PM fails his first real test of leadership

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has fallen short of his first genuine test of leadership after spending his first weeks in government introducing folksy initiatives and making policy adjustments that have had little impact, The Telegraph reports.

His repeated reversals over the early release of Pc Andrew Harper’s killers have left victims facing an intolerable period of uncertainty.

The Telegraph revealed that two of Pc Andrew Harper’s killers were due to leave prison early; Mr Burnham had the opportunity to intervene and prevent their release. Instead, he has repeatedly changed his position while attempting to shift responsibility for the situation elsewhere.

He initially suspended the early release scheme, before reviving it several weeks later with a new pledge to ensure rapists remained behind bars. At the time, he suggested in these pages that going further was not possible. While public anger mounted over the fact that Pc Harper’s killers would still qualify for release, Mr Burnham was on holiday.

Now back in office, the Prime Minister is reportedly “increasingly confident” that a way can be found to keep the two men in prison. Yet he has not explained what that solution might be or why something previously described as impossible has suddenly become achievable.

Such a succession of conflicting positions is hardly evidence of decisive leadership. More importantly, it has left victims carrying an intolerable emotional burden. Debbie Adlam, Pc Harper’s mother, has described the uncertainty as “torture”.

Rather than taking ownership of the problem, however, Mr Burnham has passed it to Alex Norris, the new Justice Secretary, giving him until September to come up with a solution. Mr Burnham promised Britain a “new politics”, but the approach is familiar: demand that a minister deliver a solution, take the credit if one emerges and leave them to shoulder the blame if it does not.

It is nevertheless welcome that Mr Burnham now appears determined to ensure Pc Harper’s killers remain behind bars. Those convicted of killing emergency workers should never have been eligible for early release in the first place. But the Government still needs to explain precisely what it intends to do. Will Mr Burnham create a specific exemption for Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole? Or will he seek to keep everyone convicted of manslaughter in prison for longer, potentially undermining the entire justification for the early release policy?

The episode echoes the conduct of the man Mr Burnham replaced in No 10. Sir Keir Starmer repeatedly changed course over welfare reforms early in his premiership and arguably never regained the authority he lost. He frequently sought to protect himself by sacrificing colleagues. Mr Burnham should take note of those lessons.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov