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  • 6/25/2025
The Labour Government has been told to "go back to the drawing board" over plans for foreign prisoners to be deported after serving just a fraction of their sentences.In an effort to save the taxpayer millions of pounds, the Government is allegedly bringing forward legislation that will allow overseas offenders to be removed after serving 30 per cent of their sentence, down from the current 50 per cent.FULL STORY HERE.
Transcript
00:00Foreign prisoners are to be deported after serving just a fraction of their jail sentences
00:04in an effort to save the taxpayer millions of pounds.
00:08Now, the Labour government are allegedly bringing forward legislation
00:11that will allow overseas offenders to be removed after serving 30% of their sentence,
00:16down from the current 50%.
00:18But can they pull this off, or once again, will the lawyers be licking their lips to derail it?
00:24Well, let's speak to one of them now.
00:25That's the human rights lawyer, great friend of the show, David Hay.
00:28David, welcome to the show, looking dapper as ever.
00:32Look, of course, they need to do something about this.
00:35It's a huge problem.
00:37Around about 10,000 foreign nationals languishing in British jails
00:40and releasing criminals, murderers and burglars and rapists early to make way.
00:46But will this plan work?
00:49Good afternoon, Martin.
00:51I think, well, the first thing, I think, you know, is it actually a good idea?
00:54Because what type of message are we saying?
00:56You know, if we want to, if we have foreign criminals and they're convicted,
01:00then yes, they should be deported.
01:02Absolutely.
01:02But should we make it so that they're only serving 30%,
01:06maybe even the report says 10% potentially, of their sentence?
01:10What message is that sending to criminals around the world?
01:13If you ask me, it's sending a message to criminals around the world,
01:15come and base yourself in Britain.
01:17You'll only do 10% to 30% of a sentence.
01:20And even if you get deported, you can get back in on a boat.
01:23I mean, that's the message I see to some of the very despicable people around the world
01:28that would exploit that.
01:29So absolutely, let's deport the criminals and get that done quickly once their sentence is finished.
01:35But should we be giving them a get out of jail free card?
01:37I'm not quite sure.
01:39So, David, hey, I hadn't even thought about that.
01:41You're exactly right.
01:42Early release, straight back by a torturous route to Calais on the next dinghy to Britain, potentially.
01:48There's something else as well, isn't there?
01:50And there's a lot of these foreign criminals we can't even return
01:53because we don't have returns agreements with countries like Afghanistan,
01:57who are 22 times more likely to be sex offenders than Brits and Iraqis and Iranians.
02:03We can't send those people back anyway.
02:04So they're off radar.
02:06And we've seen even recently with countries where we do have returns deal, like Pakistan,
02:11they won't even take back rape gang rapists because they say we'll only do that if we open an airport route.
02:17David, I can see this being fraught with all kinds of complications.
02:22Absolutely.
02:22I mean, I think, you know, that's another of the things as well.
02:24And, you know, I've seen this many times before.
02:26When a prisoner is about to be deported, the Home Office either deliberately releases them
02:30or accidentally releases them pending deportation, expecting them to turn up to be deported.
02:36Of course, many don't do that.
02:37I wonder why.
02:38You know, so you're going to have people serving less of their sentence,
02:41being allowed into the community, not turning up for deportation.
02:44So I think you've got it's fraught with problems and it's not really being thought through.
02:48I mean, it sounds nice the way if they report it properly.
02:51Let's deport foreign criminals.
02:53But the reality, particularly, you know, when you look at the victims of crime in this country,
02:56if they see someone that's there, you know, they're a victim, someone's done terrible things to them
03:01and someone's effectively getting off scot-free and then can come back in here quite easily.
03:05That isn't the purpose of prison.
03:07And, David, that's before we even talk about the ECHR and the rights to a family life, no doubt.
03:15Some chicken nuggets will hold into view or some other idiotic, you know, piece of minutiae.
03:20And once again, the lawyers will step in and deny British law coming into effect anyway.
03:27No, 100%.
03:28I mean, this will get stuck in the court.
03:29So when we go through this process, you know, they've already served, let's say, 30% of their sentence.
03:33And then if the foreign criminal then tries to stop being deported, you know,
03:38you could end up with people serving only 30% and being allowed to stay.
03:42And that is, again, not the purpose of prison.
03:45So I think, you know, I think that the Labour Party on this needs to go back to the drawing board
03:49because I don't think this is going to achieve what they're – I mean, if they're aiming to reduce the numbers in prison,
03:55yes, the easy answer, let people go.
03:56But that's not the purpose of prison.

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