Michael Gove Says Keir Starmer Could Go "Further" Than Tories Ever Did On Justice Reform

Former Conservative secretary of state Michael Gove has said that Prime Minister Keir Starmer might be able to go "further than we ever did" on prison and justice reform.

Gove spoke on a panel hosted by the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank on Wednesday evening alongside Labour MP and former Labour Together director Josh Simons, Professor of Social Policy Jane Gingrich, and British Future director Sunder Katwala.

The panellists discussed what a comprehensive program for national renewal should look like in this Parliament and how an ‘insurgent’ government might be able to transform people’s lives and restore public trust in politics and institutions.

Gove, who stood down ahead of this year's General Election after being an MP for nearly 20 years, said that many people would have found it "difficult" to see the first wave of inmates being released from prisons across the country on Tuesday in an effort to ease serious overcrowding – including some who were convicted of violence offences.

Despite having been justice secretary himself between 2015 and 2016, Gove said he felt Starmer's new Labour Government might be better placed than the Conservatives to handle the crisis in prisons and the justice system.

"We can have a debate about to what extent the Conservatives should have addressed this earlier, but I think that this is an area of urgent and necessary reform," Gove said.

"And that in some cases, having someone who is steeped in the law and respected because of the way in which [Starmer] holds it in respect enables Labour to go further than we ever did."

He described Starmer as having "obviously succeeded in and been an exemplary product of the legal system", and therefore "naturally feels a kinship with it".

Gov