Housing minister Matthew Pennycook was asked on Sky News about the ongoing ‘minority’ sentencing guideline scandal. Which took a turn yesterday as the Sentencing Council’s chairman Lord Justice Davis set out in some detail how Mahmood’s MoJ failed to raise any concern about the changes including at a walkthrough meeting on 3 March…
As is Labour’s habit Pennycook turned on the blob when asked to explain how this means Labour wasn’t “asleep at the wheel“:
“I’m not going to speak for the individual civil servants who were in whatever particular meeting.”
He went on to insist he wasn’t blaming the civil service but failed to provide an explanation for why Mahmood’s strident opposition to the guidelines only appeared after Jenrick’s intervention on Wednesday – especially considering it was “discussed 15 times between July 2022 and January 2025.” Oops…
The line is now essentially to obfuscate how it got here and try to get on with reversing the change:
“I don’t know what meetings took place with what individuals were in the room but the justice secretary could not been clearer about her view and the government’s position on this issue and what we want the Sentencing Council to do.”
Davis’ letter also hints at an inbound legal battle over whether Mahmood can impose a reversal of agreed guidelines on the Council. Lots of scope for this to get messy…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”