The recent violence in Middlesbrough is unbelievable. Nine people have died: seven in a horrific car crash and two – a seven-year-old girl and her aunt – in a house fire.
Several cars were rammed into people’s homes, a man was stabbed two miles away and other cars were set on fire. All this in the space of a week.
These events are horrific enough in themselves. But they also raise serious questions about the kind of country we want to be – and, in turn, whether our prime minister is capable of shaping the country.
Is Andy Burnham a man of action, willing to make the tough decisions that will upset his benefits-obsessed backbenchers? Or is he a man with ‘vibes’, who just wants to make Britain feel better?
Readers will be well aware that PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, were killed in a head-on collision on the A66 last Saturday morning. They went out to protect the public and never returned.
The other car contained five young men, who were driving the wrong way on a dual carriageway at high speed. Four of them had criminal records, with a combined 37 previous convictions, including shoplifting, car theft, assaulting police officers and knife possession.
As I write this, and in response to the subsequent criminality I outlined above, hundreds of police officers have been deployed to Middlesbrough amid fears that the disorder could escalate. Yet this crackdown comes too late.
Andy Burnham knows how unpopular his government’s plan for the early release of prisoners is
If repeat offenders are not properly punished, their criminality is likely to worsen. Simon Clarke, the Conservative ex-MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, tells me that police have warned him for years about young men terrorizing estates by driving through them on motorcycles and quad bikes at extraordinary speeds.
In Hemlington, south of Middlesbrough, police told Simon that children as young as 10 were running gangs, with even eight and nine-year-olds becoming involved in crime.
Behind this everyday lawlessness lies something far more serious: international organized crime, with Middlesbrough embroiled in a drug trade that feeds towns and cities across the north.
But when I think of Middlesbrough I think of the ports and heavy industry, Middlesbrough FC and the late writer Rod Liddle, who was so proud of his home town.
And while it is true that the loss of heavy industry, especially steel production, has led to hardship in this once proud region, no one should fall into the trap of suggesting that hardship could ever excuse crime.
Ben Houchen, who has been the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley since 2017 – he won his historic third term in 2024 – has been calling for years for Cleveland police to get the resources they need. Ben has rightly emphasized that the solution to the region’s problems is twofold: taking strong and rapid action against crime and, just as importantly, supporting businesses to create jobs.
Of the two, crime is the more immediate concern. Middlesbrough needs action – and that’s what Andy Burnham should deliver by putting criminals in jail and putting more police on the streets.
On the same estates affected by joyriding and other crimes, people get up every morning to go to work, often for modest wages. Parents try to keep their children away from gangs and crime.
Pastors, city council members, and countless other good people are trying to keep their neighborhoods together. Many are afraid: they know who is responsible for the problems and see what happens to those who speak out.
Middlesbrough has become, in the words of former MP Simon Clarke, a ‘slow-burn disaster’. Because it is not a trendy place like London or Manchester, problems that would have caused a national scandal in those cities have been allowed to fester there. I do not pretend that these issues arose when Labor came to power. Some go back a long way, to a time when Conservatives were also in government.
There’s plenty of blame to go around. But better than looking at where to place the blame, it is better to ask what needs to change now.
Is Andy Burnham a man of action, willing to make tough decisions? Or is he a man with ‘vibes’, who just wants to make Britain feel better? writes Kemi Badenoch
The first thing we need to do is ensure that potential offenders know that serious crimes will be punished appropriately – and that if convicted they will end up in prison for a long time.
Andy Burnham knows how deeply unpopular his government’s plan for the early release of prisoners is. He has tried to distance himself from the policy – which could see thousands of offenders being released from October before serving their full sentences – and has spoken of halting the scheme while it is “reviewed”.
But talk is cheap and a revision is a delaying tactic.
If we want to know what kind of man Burnham is, let’s see if he quits Labour’s parole program on Tuesday, when Parliament returns.
Labor claims the problem is merely a matter of overpopulation. In fact, it is about much more than that.
The real question is: who should bear the consequences if the state runs out of prison space? Innocent people in places like Middlesbrough? Victims of sexual abuse seeing their attackers free? The families of men like PC Andrew Harper, murdered in Berkshire in 2019 by three teenagers who may now be released early?
My answer is simple. If the state fails in these areas, it is the state that must bear the consequences.
If the choice is between the government managing overcrowded prisons and ordinary people seeing dangerous offenders released back into their neighborhoods, I believe that the government should address overcrowding by all necessary legal means. It is remarkable that there is a debate about this at all.
People living in places that already suffer from high crime rates should not be put at further risk just because ministers from all parties have failed to provide sufficient prison capacity.
Unreformed criminals should stay in prison longer, to protect everyone else.
Mr Burnham must recognize that he is not the ‘Mayor of the United Kingdom’, but the Prime Minister. Mayors enjoy the luxury of being able to focus on small local issues. No PMs. If he believes the early release policy is wrong, he should cancel it and stop doing that shit, like he has been doing all summer.
Burnham’s main political strength is his ability to talk politics in a way that sounds optimistic and reassuring after those grim Keir Starmer years. There’s nothing wrong with optimism: Britain could use more of it. But optimism is not a plan.
As Leader of the Opposition, it is my job to hold this government to account on behalf of the country.
People won’t judge Andy Burnham on whether his announcements cheered them up. They will judge him on whether their streets have become safer and whether the problems they saw all around them have actually been solved.
Middlesbrough is where that test begins. Two police officers and other innocent people lost their lives. Families are sad. A city already struggling with crime and harassment has found itself in the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
The decent majority who live in Middlesbrough are exactly the people I stand up for. They have endured this kind of misery long enough.
They deserve to know that the law means something and that the criminal minority will no longer be allowed to dominate their neighborhoods.
It’s time for some common sense – and the right consequences for criminal behavior, before we see more tragedies like the one in Middlesbrough.
Andy Burnham wants Britain to feel different: I want it to be different. And that is the plan my team stands ready to deliver when Burnham calls a snap election – and I strongly believe he will do so.
