Andy Burnham calls for G4S to be stripped of youth prisons contract

Last Updated: January 10, 2016By

Andy Burnham said home secretary Theresa May should lead a review into G4s contracts after seven members of staff were suspended following abuse claims [Image: Lynda Bowyer/Demotix/Corbis].

Once again, scandal-ridden G4S is in the firing line.

But the Tory contractor has seemed Teflon-coated up until now, despite a series of disasters set to be topped by child abuse in tomorrow’s Panorama film.

The company recently provided assurances that Theresa May’s husband was not a high-ranking shareholder, as had been believed on the social media since 2012 – but this raises the question: Why does the government keep hiring these creeps?

This Blog applauds Andy Burnham and Labour for highlighting the disaster that is the Conservative record of contracting-out public services to private companies.

The shadow home secretary, Andy Burnham, has called for G4S to be stripped of its contract to run children’s prisons after seven members of staff were suspended following abuse claims at a youth offenders institution. Burnham has also called for a wide-ranging review of all the company’s contracts within the criminal justice system to be led by the home secretary and justice secretary.

An investigation by BBC’s Panorama, to be aired on Monday evening, features footage taken by an undercover reporter working as a guard at Medway secure training centre (STC), Kent, which holds children aged between 12 and 18. The Panorama reporter witnessed scenes of children being assaulted by guards and using restraint techniques unnecessarily. In one instance, a child tells staff who are squeezing his windpipe that he cannot breathe.

“What shocks me is that we’ve heard these things time and again, and every time we’ve had bland assurance from G4S it won’t happen again and yet it just carries on the same,” Burnham told the Guardian.

Source: Andy Burnham calls for G4S to be stripped of youth prisons contract | Business | The Guardian

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No Comments

  1. loobitzh January 11, 2016 at 12:04 am - Reply

    Mike my comments keep being screwed before they are completely submitted. Could this be big bro not liking what I have to say?

    • Mike Sivier January 11, 2016 at 2:03 pm - Reply

      I don’t think so. It’s probably just a glitch of some kind.
      If you use profane language I’ll censor it, though. Everybody here has to keep it clean because I want the articles – and the comments – to be seen by as many people as possible, and profanity limits that possibility.

  2. Jeffery Davies January 11, 2016 at 6:46 am - Reply

    They shouldn’t have any government contracts full stop

  3. Dez January 11, 2016 at 9:27 am - Reply

    This Government loves these types of contractors who appear to be easily infiltrated by the good and the bad….as long as they are cheap and profit is assured. And they stell want more and more of the outsource pie despite all the bad news they keep being put on the procurement lists…….

  4. Terry Davies January 11, 2016 at 4:41 pm - Reply

    is Theresa May the appropriate minister to oversee prison contracts if her husband has shares in G4S ???

    • Mike Sivier January 11, 2016 at 8:32 pm - Reply

      Her husband DOESN’T have G4S shares. At least, that’s what they’re saying.

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