Express & Star

Pat McFadden MP: Extending terrorist jail sentences does not remove risk

The Government must toughen laws around surveillance and management of convicted terrorists rather than just focusing on increasing sentences, an MP has said.

Published
WOLVERHAMPTON PIC MNA PIC DAVID HAMILTON PIC EXPRESS AND STAR 12/12/2019 WITH VIDEO The count, at Aldersley Leisure Village, Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton South East result, Pat McFadden..

Pat McFadden, Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East, said keeping terrorists in prison for longer does not change the fact they will eventually be released and said it was crucial that current practices for managing ex-prisoners are reviewed.

Boris Johnson has vowed to put an end to terrorists being released half way through their sentences following two attacks in London in the space of three months by ex-inmates.

Usman Khan was living at flats in Stafford before his deadly attack

But Mr McFadden suggested the Prime Minister was missing the point by focusing on the length of prison sentences.

The MP was a vocal critic of the Coalition Government's decision to 'water down' Control Orders introduced under Tony Blair.

Usman Khan was living in Stafford after being freed from prison when carried out a knife attack at London Bridge in November.

Usman Khan

Sudesh Amman launched the latest attack in Streatham on Sunday shortly after coming out of prison.

Mr McFadden said: "Legislating on early release only deals with part of the issue with prisoners serving sentences for terrorism-related offences.

"Even if the prisoners serve more of their sentence, at some point they come to the end of it and you then have the issue of how to monitor and control people who may still be ideologically committed extremists.

Sudesh Amman

"Keeping watch on these people places a huge strain on the police and intelligence services. It is impossible to guarantee that those trying to protect us can prevent every attack but we should be doing everything we can to help them.

"That means that as well as sentencing the Government has to address their mistaken decision to weaken the supervision regime that was in place when they abolished Control Orders.

"The Control Order regime allowed terrorists to be removed to other parts of the country and away from networks of like minded extremists. It was a mistake to replace this regime with a weaker system. If we are to respond properly to incidents where recently released terrorists commit crimes we have to deal with the post-release supervision system as well as sentencing itself.”