LONG jail terms for foreign offenders who slip back into Britain are one of a barrage of crime-fighting initiatives to be unveiled in the Queen’s Speech.
The tough action to keep out hardened criminals is aimed at gangland thugs who have already been deported.
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The 93-year-old monarch will lay out 22 bills in the first State Opening of Parliament in more than two years.
Seven of them – almost a third – will be in the law and order crackdown while five are from the Home Office and two from the Ministry of Justice.
PM Boris Johnson hopes to use his first full legislative package to woo voters to back him in an imminent general election.
With his Commons majority wiped out during Brexit battles last month, the speech faces an uphill battle to be passed before a new nationwide vote.
On top of the jumbo crime package, there will also be:
- A major series of reforms unveiled for the NHS, from patient safety to mental health care;
- A power bid to fight the social care crisis, expected to be based around a new insurance system for older workers;
- Legally binding targets to enforce cleaner air and slash single-use plastics;
- Six different Brexit bills, including rushing through a Withdrawal Agreement Bill to ratify an 11th-hour deal by October 31.
The Home Office last night estimated 400 criminals a year breach deportation orders as the maximum sentence is just six months’ jail.
But the Foreign National Offenders Bill proposed today will hike it to at least two years, with Home Office ministers pushing for five.
‘A SLAP ON THE WRIST’
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “Many criminals conclude that it’s worth trying to get back in the country when all you get is a slap on the wrist.
“Deterring foreign criminals from re-entering the country and putting those that do behind bars for longer will make our country safer.”
In the crime-fighting package, there will also be significant new protections for under-fire cops.
The Police Protections Bill will help to stop high-pursuit officers from being unfairly prosecuted by ensuring their high levels of training are taken into account.
As The Sun revealed on Saturday, an Extradition Bill will also create new police powers to deport foreign criminals faster.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland will also reveal two different sentencing bills.
One will end early release for the most serious crimes and ensure rapists and murderers serve at least two-thirds of their sentence.
MAJOR HEALTH REFORMS
There will also be a Prisoners Bill that will include “Helen’s Law”, which will punish murderers who hold back information on their victims’ whereabouts.
It is named after Helen McCourt, who was murdered in 1988.
The health package includes a Patient Safety Bill, which will set up the world’s first independent investigations unit to police standards in hospitals and GPs’ surgeries.
It will also see black box-type gadgets installed in machinery.
The NHS Long Term Plan Bill will oversee building and repairs to 40 hospitals.
Landmark new proposals for major reforms to mental health care will also be published.
In an initiative first pioneered by ex-PM Theresa May, they will give the Mental Health Act its biggest overhaul in almost 40 years and improve sectioning procedures.
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But the whole package will face a fight to get passed when it comes to a Commons vote next week. MPs will first spend the remainder of this one debating it.
Mr Johnson has no majority after he suspended 21 Tory MPs for voting to delay Brexit and several defected to the Lib Dems.
To add to his woes, the PM must also negotiate a new “confidence and supply” deal with the DUP, whose 10 MPs were propping up his minority government.
If the Queen’s Speech is voted down, tradition dictates the PM resigns and calls a general election.
That may delight Mr Johnson, who has been pushing for one for weeks to end the Brexit deadlock.
Promising to “get this country moving again”, he said: “The people of this country don’t just want us to sort out Brexit.
“This is a Queen’s Speech that will deliver for every corner of the UK and make this, once again, the greatest place on earth.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday dismissed it as a “Tory party political broadcast”.
He said it was “utterly ludicrous” for the PM to be setting out his proposals when he is running a Government that “hasn’t yet won a vote in Parliament”.
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