Shabana Mahmood vows to send foreign criminals ‘packing' when they are jailed
The changes would apply to prisoners serving fixed-term 'determinate' sentences, and authorities would retain their power not to deport a criminal but instead keep them in custody, for example, if the offender was planning further crimes against the UK's interests or national security.
'Our message is clear,' Ms Mahmood said.
'If you abuse our hospitality and break our laws, we will send you packing.'
Prisoners face deportation 30% into their prison sentence rather than the current 50% under a change in the law set to come in in September (PA)
She also said: 'Deportations are up under this Government, and with this new law they will happen earlier than ever before.'
Almost 5,200 foreign national offenders have been deported since July 2024, a 14% increase on the 12 months prior, according to the Government.
The Justice Secretary's announcement follows a tweak in the law in June, expected to come into force in September, so prisoners face deportation 30% into their prison sentence rather than the current 50%.
The Government will need Parliament to greenlight its proposal to bring this down to 0%.
According to a Labour source, the previous Conservative government relied on prison transfer agreements with other countries to deport foreign national offenders, in deals which allow inmates to serve their custodial sentence in their 'home' country.
This saw 945 prisoners sent to jails abroad between 2010 and 2023, equal to less than one-and-a-half criminals per week.
Foreign national offenders make up around 12% of the prison population.
Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: 'In Starmer's topsy turvy world investors are fleeing the country in their droves while record numbers of violent and sexual offenders from abroad are put up in our prisons. It's a farce.
'Yet again Starmer has refused to confront our broken human rights laws.
'He needs to grow a backbone and change them so we can actually deport these individuals.
'The safety of the British public is infinitely more important than the 'rights' of sick foreign criminals.
'If countries won't take back their nationals, Starmer should suspend visas and foreign aid. His soft-touch approach isn't working.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
a few seconds ago
- Spectator
Police chiefs must learn to use their common sense
Britain's top cop club has released new guidance to forces in England and Wales on when and how to describe the suspects of serious crimes. It's a day late and a dollar short. The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), stirred from their deckchairs by nationwide riots of only twelve months ago, are now advising constabularies that it's probably a good thing in most circumstances if people's ethnicity and immigration status are disclosed at the point of charge. If you're wondering why it takes this body in conjunction with the College of Policing to tell chiefs they are allowed to use common sense, you're in good company. But let's apply this new dispensation to a real-life example to see if it flies. Say, the one where police obfuscation over the identity of a suspect contributed to the worst public order breakdown for over a decade. Alex Rudukabana, the Southport child murderer, was arrested on 29 July last year. Police gave the first information about him to the public later that same evening, which did nothing to contradict misinformation already halfway round the world. Its selectivity only fuelled public anger. After arrest for multiple murders, the police had 96 hours to charge or release him under legislation. By the time police announced he had been charged on the morning of 1 August, serious disorder had broken out in five locations with dozens of officers injured and a violent contagion was released across the UK. It's fair to say that this anaemic intervention should at least stop huge inconsistencies that exist across the country. Chief officers are clearly befuddled by what they perceive to be legal or community tension obstacles to doing the right thing at the right time. Merseyside police, perhaps stung by their mishandling of the Southport massacre comms, swung into action when a car-ramming horror happened on the streets of Liverpool in May. The ethnicity of the alleged assailant – 'a white British man' – was released two hours after his arrest and long before Paul Doyle was charged with multiple counts of GBH. Contrast this with the arrant idiocy of Warwickshire police, whose extreme reluctance to confirm the immigration status and ethnicity of two reported asylum seekers suspected of the rape of a 12 year old girl in Nuneaton recently was based not on any legislative obstacle but on the lack of guidance to tell them they could. The precise status of the alleged attackers Ahmad Mulakhil and Mohammad Kabir is still shrouded in mystery. While they are entitled to the presumption of innocence and due process, I can't see anything that would preclude those facts from being released. Beyond, of course, the cack-eyed fealty to 'community cohesion', which seems to eternally ignore the fact that this social contract relies on the majority in the country believing in it. There is no substitute for the fullest information being disclosed accurately and fast. Where there might be a legal impediment, for example age, that is relied upon to stop any early disclosure, this must be changed. The National Police Chiefs Council ought to be an anachronism these days. We introduced local democratic accountability years ago in the form of policing and crime commissioners (PCCs). But they are too often incompetent duds and political retreads far behind the curve of public opinion that elected them. If this architecture must exist along with the insatiable bureaucracy of the College of Policing, it ought to spend more time ensuring that police chiefs and their guidance are both fit for purpose. Otherwise we will continue to see people like Essex Chief Ben-Julian Harrington well over his head when it comes to policing protests, such as those tinderbox concerns over illegal migration, despite being the NPCC lead for public order. His misunderstanding of the Human Rights Act and the convention it is built on meant that masked antifa protestors from outside the community were given a police escort into and away from a then peaceful demonstration by townspeople outside a hotel for migrants in Epping. This had disastrous results both in terms of disorder and public confidence. One thing PCCs can do is hire chief officers who are able and willing to do the thing public trust relies on – police without fear or favour – and fire those who can't. Perhaps it is not too late for them to step up.
Glasgow Times
5 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Nicola Sturgeon: Mimicking men led to personality free zone
Her first time as a candidate was in 1992 in the General Election, standing in Glasgow Shettleston, aged 21 and still a law student at Glasgow University. She said she was the youngest candidate across the UK, which attracted media attention. READ NEXT:Nicola Sturgeon tells of 'shame' at racism tactics in campaign team READ NEXT:Nicola Sturgeon reveals what she thinks of the nickname that 'stuck' She wrote: 'Since I was too young to really know who I was, I presented to the world an image of what I thought a politician should look and sound like.' She said she began to 'mimic' people around her, who were mainly middle-aged men. (Image: PA) As a result, she said: 'I developed a very serious and austere persona. It was said that I never smiled. I opted for dark plain clothes, usually trouser suits.' She said she was portrayed as being 'dour, frumpy, unattractive'. Alternatively, had she decided on a 'highly feminine pose' she said she'd be 'criticised as unserious' and was therefore in a 'no-win situation'. READ NEXT:Nicola Sturgeon tells how staff in this Glasgow pub refused to serve her READ NEXT:Nicola Sturgeon tells of clubbing with Hollywood star In her book Frankly, Sturgeon states: 'This, then, is how Nicola the soundbite, facsimile politician was born. I came across as a personality-free zone.' She said had she not stood in 1992, she may have had more time to develop as a person first but would have missed out on the experience she gained She said it took her more than a decade to 'feel even remotely comfortable in my own skin'. In that first foray into an election, she said she was Alex Salmond's choice to be the candidate. Sturgeon said it provoked 'suspicion' that she was being promoted above her ability and even generated 'whispers, off and on, that we must be having an affair'. Sturgeon lost heavily to Labour's David Marshall by 21,665 to 6831 and graduated with a law degree soon after. The election, however, had cemented her desire to pursue politics as a career rather than law. She gained a traineeship in Glasgow with legal firm McLure Naismith Anderson Gardner. But she said, 'I was miserable there.'
The Herald Scotland
15 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Migrant residing at Epping asylum seeker hotel is charged with sexual assault
The 32-year-old has been charged with sexual assault, two counts of common assault and four of assault by beating which are said to have happened between July 25 and August 12. A series of protests have been held outside the Bell Hotel in recent weeks after another man, Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, was charged with sexual assault. The Bell Hotel has been the scene of a number of protests (Yui Mok/PA) The 38-year-old, who is accused of attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl, denies the charges and is due to stand trial this month. Epping Forest District Council has applied for an interim High Court injunction in a bid to stop asylum seekers from being housed at the hotel. In a statement, Essex Police said: 'A man will appear in court today to face criminal charges after officers were called to the Bell Hotel on Epping High Road on Tuesday, August 12. 'A 32-year-old man was arrested and questioned. 'Mohammed Sharwarq, a Syrian national who resides at the Bell Hotel, Epping, has been charged with the following offences: two counts of common assault; four counts of assault by beating; one count of sexual assault on a male contrary to section 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. 'The offences are alleged to have taken place between July 25 and August 12. 'He has been remanded in custody and was due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court today, Wednesday August 13. 'Officers are not currently seeking any other suspects in relation with this case.'
