Andy Burnham has called on the justice secretary to scrap the early release scheme, after it emerged that two men convicted of killing PC Andrew Harper were freed early.
Call to end the scheme
The Greater Manchester mayor said the scheme, which allows some prisoners to be released up to 18 days early, should be ended immediately.
Burnham said the public would be "astonished" to learn that the killers of PC Harper had been released early under the scheme.
Killers released early
PC Harper was killed in 2019 while responding to a quad bike theft in Berkshire. Two teenagers, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, were convicted of his manslaughter and sentenced to 13 and 13 years respectively.
It has now been reported that both men were released early under the government's early release scheme, which was introduced to ease prison overcrowding.
Justice secretary urged to act
Burnham said the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, should "look at this again" and end the scheme.
He said: "I think the public will be astonished to hear that the people who killed PC Andrew Harper have been released early from prison."
Burnham said the scheme was "wrong" and should be scrapped, adding that the public needed to have confidence in the justice system.
