Tory and Reform MPs alike are jumping on the latest guidelines from the Sentencing Council which go into effect next month. They include new differential rules for people of “minority” races or faiths…
Robert Jenrick raised the issue in the Commons and asked Shabana Mahmood why pre-sentence reports – which lower the likelihood of imprisonment – are to be “considered necessary” for individuals “from an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community.” Mahmood replied:
“As somebody who is of an ethnic minority background myself I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law for anyone of any kind and there will never be a two-tier sentencing approach under my watch or under this Labour government.”
That doesn’t come close to explaining the new bizarre guidelines. The government has a representative on that Sentencing Council. Labour will have to get a grip of this one…
UPDATE: On cue, Mahmood claims she did not know about this. Despite government representative Claire Fielding being present at the sign-off meeting…
Lucy Powell told Sky News that the Ed Miliband-Russell Brand interview happened in part because the ‘social media age’ had not begun by 2015:
“Look, I mean, he approached the Labour Party, he approached the campaign team, and we’re in very different times now. We weren’t in the social media age at the time – where you could maybe search things up and see allegations about somebody at the time. and as I say, if there was any suggestion at all, we were dealing with someone who was a known sexual predator at the time, then, of course, you know, no one would have done that. But as I say, he was a well known public figure. Lots of people from Hollywood to the BBC to many others gave this person a very, very powerful platform. And we didn’t know at the time, unfortunately. It was a different era.”
