PC Harper's killers to stay in jail as PM announces changes to early release scheme

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has told the BBC that PC Andrew Harper's killers will remain behind bars as he announced changes to the early release scheme aimed at easing prison overcrowding.

In an exclusive interview with BBC Breakfast, Burnham said anyone convicted of unlawful killing, including all forms of manslaughter, will be excluded from the scheme, which would have made two of the officer's killers eligible for early release.

Burnham said extra prison space would be created by deporting foreign prisoners and releasing some inmates serving indefinite sentences.

It follows months of campaigning from PC Harper's family and former colleagues to block the release of his killers.

The 28-year-old was responding to a burglary in Berkshire in 2019 when he was dragged along a road by a vehicle as three teenagers fled the scene of a quad bike theft.

When it emerged that two of the killers, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, could be released early, there were passionate calls for the government to intervene and block those convicted of manslaughter from early release.

"I heard obviously what Andrew Harper's family were saying, I mean who couldn't? Nobody would want a position to arise where those guilty of killing a police officer are let out early from prison," Burnham told the BBC.

He conceded the announcement will mean "hundreds" more people stay in prison, meaning additional space will need to be found in a system that is more than 97% full in England and Wales.