British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has failed his first leadership test, according to the British edition of the Telegraph.
"Having come face to face with the first real test of leadership since entering office, the prime minister failed it," the newspaper said in a publication.
The publication links Burnham's failure with his refusal to take an unequivocal position on the early release of criminals who killed police officer Andrew Harper in 2019. According to the newspaper, Burnham has repeatedly changed his mind about their release: at first he suspended the decision on the early release of criminals throughout the country, but just a couple of weeks later he resumed his action, limiting only the release of rapists. Now, after a barrage of criticism, the prime minister has changed his position again — he claims that there is a way to keep these criminals behind bars, while Burnham cannot name him.
"This dizzying change of positions hardly looks like firm leadership," the newspaper notes.
According to the mother of the deceased policeman, this uncertainty about those who took her son's life is like torture.
In August 2019, 28-year-old Andrew Haprer died in the line of duty while responding to the theft of an ATV in Berkshire. The three teenagers who killed the policeman were sentenced to a total of 42 years in prison.
Earlier, the Daily Star reported that almost 2.5 thousand prisoners, including about a hundred convicted of sexual assault, will be released from British prisons amid an overload of the country's penitentiary system. Later, the prime minister said that persons convicted of rape and serious sexual crimes against children were excluded from the program.