Rapists and murderers to be released from jail early under Labour’s new ‘progression model’

It will restrict the use of short sentences and strengthen community punishments.

The bill will also include an "earned progression scheme", which allows convicts who demonstrate good behaviour to be freed earlier.

The measures will allow prisoners on standard determinate sentences who obey prison rules to be released early, with enhanced supervision in the community, followed by a period on licence which is unsupervised.

There will be a minimum release point of 33 per cent for standard determinate sentences, while more serious standard determinate sentences will have a 50 per cent minimum.

This will be accompanied by an expansion of tagging to monitor offenders in the community.

Labour have said the worst offenders - those on extended determinate sentences or life sentences - will never benefit from early progression.

However, the Tories have claimed that many of the worst offenders, including rapists, paedophiles, stalkers, violent attackers, and even attempted murderers, are serving standard sentences and will therefore be eligible for early release.

The Kemi Badenoch-led Party has tabled an amendment to the Bill that seeks to ensure a carve out for the most serious crimes, so that those who commit rape, assault by penetration, grievous bodily harm, stalking and sexual offences against children, cannot be released early.

Shadow Justice Minister Dr Kieran Mullan claimed Labour’s plans are "a gift to rapists and paedophiles" and "an insult" to victims.

But Sentencing Minister Jake Richards accused the Conservatives of "rank hypocrisy" over their criticism of the sentencing reforms, arguing that the last Government took prisons to "breaking point".

Ahead of committee stage of the Sentencing Bill today, Dr Mullan said: "Labour’s early release plan is a betrayal of victims and a gift to rapists and paedophiles.

"Keir Starmer is putting criminals before communities and letting predators out early.

"Under Labour’s plans, thousands of the most serious would no longer be treated as such, an insult to the thousands of victims across the country.

"Anyone who votes for these plans will have to explain why these crimes do not count among the most serious offences.

"The Conservatives will fight this moral rot at every step of the way and our fully-funded plan to put an extra ten thousand police officers on the streets will help to restore public order."

Mr Richards said Labour are "cleaning up the mess" left by the Conservatives and accused them of "feigned outrage".

He added: "The Conservatives’ rank hypocrisy is shameful. They built this crisis, then feigned outrage when the consequences arrived.

"They took our prisons to breaking point, released thousands of serious offenders early and pushed Britain to the brink of a situation where police could no longer make arrests and courts could no longer prosecute.

"That would have been a total collapse of law and order.

"Now they attack us for cleaning up the mess they made. They are behaving like arsonists complaining the fire service couldn’t stop the flame.

"This Labour Government believes in prison and in punishment that cuts crime.

"We’re delivering the biggest prison expansion since the Victorians, reforming sentencing to keep the public safe and building a justice system worthy of the name."

The Sentencing Bill is to implement the recommendations from the review of the system carried out by Tory former justice secretary David Gauke.

The plans will include restrictions on the imposition of short sentences of less than 12 months, apart from exceptional circumstances, such as domestic abuse cases, and extend the maximum length of suspended sentences from two to three years.

The "earned progression scheme", recommended by Mr Gauke, would see an offender’s release date determined by their behaviour.

If they follow prison rules, they will earn early release but if they do not, they will be locked up for longer.

The Conservatives are introducing a number of other amendments to the Bill.

These include bids to require courts to collect and publish detailed data on sentencing, to make judges’ sentencing remarks publicly available within two days, to automatically prevent parents convicted of child sexual offences from having parental rights, to extend the time victims and families have to challenge lenient sentences, and to expand whole-life orders for the murder of police or prison officers.

Campaign group Justice for Victims has also expressed concerns over the Sentencing Bill and called for a number of changes to be made, including introducing stronger rights for victims to be notified and involved in decisions about an offender and more proportionate sentences for serious sexual or violent crimes.