Why the ‘two-tier Keir’ jibe isn’t going away

Popping champagne, skulking off to smoke a spliff and pledging to become a life-long Labour voter. Anyone concerned about criminal justice in Britain will find the well-documented glee of the 1,700 prisoners given early release around the country this week galling indeed. As domestic abusers and career criminals walk free, many will have been struck by the contrast with the government’s response to last month’s riots, bringing to mind that most irresistible of epithets: ‘two-tier Keir’.

In the Commons, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage duly used his first ever question at PMQs to punch this bruise. Many of those leaving prison will be effectively swapping places with those arrested last month in the disturbances following the barbaric Southport attack. While some of those locked up were violent rioters, others, said Farage, were merely ‘those who have said unpleasant things on Facebook and elsewhere on social media’ (like the grandmother and sole carer to her elderly husband, Julie Sweeney, given 15 months for a single crass Facebook post). Then