Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the BBC in an interview with BBC Breakfast that anyone convicted of manslaughter will now be excluded from the early-release changes in the UK’s Sentencing Act 2026 — meaning the three men convicted of killing PC Andrew Harper in 2019 will not be eligible for the earlier release the reform would otherwise have offered them. Here’s the full context: who Harper was, what happened to his killers’ sentences, and why this specific carve-out became a political flashpoint seven years after his death.
Who Was PC Andrew Harper
Andrew Harper was a 28-year-old Thames Valley Police officer who was killed on August 15, 2019, after responding to a quad bike theft in rural Berkshire. He became entangled in a tow rope attached to the getaway car and was dragged for more than a mile along winding country lanes as the vehicle fled the scene, sustaining fatal injuries. His death prompted widespread public outrage and became one of the most closely followed criminal cases in recent UK history, driven in significant part by a sustained public campaign led by his widow, Lissie Harper.
The Trial and the Sentences That Followed
Three men from a Traveller community in Reading — Henry Long, 19 at the time, along with Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, both 18 — stood trial at the Old Bailey. All three were cleared of murder by the jury but convicted of manslaughter: Long, who drove the car, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, while Cole and Bowers were convicted after trial. Long was sentenced to 16 years, and Cole and Bowers each received 13 years. The Attorney General’s Office subsequently referred the sentences to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient, but the appeal was dismissed, and the men’s own appeals against their sentences were dismissed as well — leaving the original terms in place. The manslaughter verdict rather than murder, and the resulting sentence lengths, drew sustained public criticism at the time and fueled Lissie Harper’s campaign for what became known as “Andrew’s Law,” calling for mandatory life sentences in cases where a police officer is killed in the line of duty.
Why Early Release Became the Issue
The current controversy isn’t about the original sentences directly — it’s about a separate, later policy problem: chronic prison overcrowding in England and Wales. As of early 2026, the prison population stood at more than 87,000 against a certified normal capacity of roughly 70,000 — meaning the system was operating at around 25% above its designed capacity. In 2024, the government introduced an emergency measure known as SDS40, releasing eligible standard determinate sentence prisoners after serving 40% of their term instead of the previous 50%, specifically to relieve that overcrowding pressure.
The Sentencing Act 2026 goes further: under the reform, most adult offenders serving standard determinate sentences will now be released after serving just one-third of their sentence, while a separate group who previously would have served two-thirds will instead be released at the halfway point. The changes are due to come into force on October 1, 2026. Because the reform applies broadly across most standard determinate sentences rather than being crime-specific, it raised an immediate and predictable question: would it also apply to prisoners convicted of manslaughter in cases like Harper’s, releasing Long, Cole, and Bowers years earlier than their original sentences implied?
What Burnham Actually Announced
In the BBC Breakfast interview, Burnham confirmed that manslaughter convictions will be specifically excluded from the Sentencing Act’s early-release provisions — a direct carve-out that keeps Harper’s killers, and others convicted of the same offense, outside the reduced-threshold scheme. Burnham had previously pledged to do “everything possible” to ensure the pair were not released early, following the widespread public backlash the prospect had generated once the broader reform became public. A formal review of the early-release scheme’s scope is being carried out by Justice Secretary Alex Norris and is expected to be published when Parliament returns from its summer recess in September 2026 — meaning the manslaughter exclusion Burnham announced is likely to be formalized through that review process rather than standing as a standalone, informal assurance.
The Political Backdrop
The announcement carries extra weight given the position Burnham himself is in: he became UK Prime Minister on July 20, 2026, after Keir Starmer stepped down, making Burnham the seventh person to hold the office in the past decade — a period of unusually frequent leadership turnover in British politics. Coming into office in the middle of an active prison-overcrowding crisis, and inheriting a sentencing reform that was already politically contentious before he took over, the Harper case represents one of Burnham’s first high-profile tests of how his government will balance a genuine, structural prison-capacity problem against public expectations around sentencing for violent crime — particularly cases, like Harper’s, that already carried a significant public sense of unresolved grievance from the original trial’s manslaughter verdict.
What’s Still Unresolved
The manslaughter exclusion Burnham announced addresses the specific, highest-profile case driving public attention, but it doesn’t resolve the underlying tension the Sentencing Act 2026 was built to manage: a prison system still operating significantly above capacity, with a reform designed specifically to relieve that pressure now carrying a growing list of carve-outs. Justice Secretary Alex Norris’s review, due in September, will determine how broadly the manslaughter exclusion is defined in practice — whether it covers all manslaughter convictions uniformly, or is scoped more narrowly to cases with specific aggravating factors, such as the death of an on-duty police or emergency services officer. That distinction matters materially for how many other prisoners, beyond Harper’s three killers specifically, end up affected by the same carve-out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who killed PC Andrew Harper?
Henry Long, Jessie Cole, and Albert Bowers were convicted of manslaughter over Harper’s death in August 2019. Long, who drove the vehicle, was sentenced to 16 years; Cole and Bowers each received 13 years. All three were cleared of murder.
Why were they eligible for early release in the first place?
The Sentencing Act 2026, a broad reform aimed at easing severe prison overcrowding in England and Wales, reduces the release threshold for most standard determinate sentences to one-third of the term served, applying across most offense types unless specifically excluded.
What did Andy Burnham actually announce?
In a BBC Breakfast interview, Burnham confirmed that manslaughter convictions will be excluded from the Sentencing Act’s early-release changes, meaning Harper’s killers will not be eligible for the reduced-threshold release the broader reform would otherwise have applied to them.
When does the Sentencing Act 2026 take effect?
The reformed release thresholds are due to come into force on October 1, 2026. The formal review defining the scope of exclusions, including the manslaughter carve-out, is expected when Parliament returns from summer recess in September 2026.
Is Andy Burnham really the UK Prime Minister?
Yes — Burnham became Prime Minister on July 20, 2026, after Keir Starmer stepped down, becoming the seventh person to hold the office in the past decade.
The Bottom Line
Andy Burnham’s announcement resolves the single highest-profile question hanging over the UK’s 2026 sentencing reform — Harper’s killers will serve their originally imposed terms, not an early-release-adjusted one — but it does so through a targeted exclusion rather than a reversal of the broader policy. The underlying problem the Sentencing Act 2026 was built to solve, a prison system running roughly 25% above its designed capacity, remains fully in place, and Justice Secretary Alex Norris’s September review will determine how far the manslaughter carve-out extends beyond this one case. For a prime minister seven weeks into office at the time of this announcement, it’s an early signal of how his government intends to navigate the gap between a genuine capacity crisis and the public’s expectations around sentencing for violent crime.
