Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was standing in for Sir Keir Starmer today, facing questions from shadow housing secretary James Cleverly.

In a surprise announcement, Lammy said the King has granted a conditional pardon to Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK in 1955, after she was convicted of murdering her abusive lover.

Her sentence will be commuted from execution to life in prison. "While the pardon does not claim she was innocent of killing David Blakely," Lammy said, the change in sentence recognises "a profound injustice in this exceptional case".

"Justice has finally been done," her granddaughter said afterwards.

Justice was at the centre of PMQs, with questions heavily focusing on the issue of early prisoner release.

Cleverly highlighted sex offenders and paedophiles, repeatedly pushing Lammy to apologise for letting serious criminals out early - saying that the deputy prime minister was "hellbent on releasing dangerous criminals".

The shadow housing secretary was referring to proposed changes to the Sentencing Act, which include reducing jail time for some prisoners to ease overcrowding.

Lammy hit back with statistics about the Conservatives’ own record on early release and prison closures, adding that prisons were "at bursting point" after 14 years of Tory government.

Our live coverage of PMQs is ending now but you can read more about Ruth Ellis here and about the proposed changes to the Sentencing Act here.

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How many prison places opened under Tories and Labour?published at 14:46 BST

14:46 BST

By Lucy Gilder

At deputy PMQs earlier, David Lammy contrasted Labour and Conservative records on prison building in England and Wales.

Lammy told the Commons that "the last Labour government built 28,000 prison places. We are building 14,000 by 2031 and we already delivered 3,200”.

The previous Labour government delivered 27,830 net prison places over its 13 years in office, external, according to multiple statements by former Labour justice minister Sir Nicholas Dakin in Parliament.

Under the Conservatives, there was a net total of 482 prison places added, external over their 14 years in power, Ministry of Justice analysis shows.

Although the Tories built about 13,000 prison places, roughly 12,500 were closed between 2010 and 2024 after some of the older Victorian prisons fell into disrepair.

Labour has committed to building 14,000 more prison places by 2031. So far about 3,100 of those places have been opened but the government hasn’t made clear whether that’s a net total, external.

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David Lammy announced the King had granted a conditional pardon to Ruth Ellis at the end of an intense session of deputy Prime Minister's Questions.

Lammy was standing in for Keir Starmer, who's currently in Turkey for the Nato summit. He faced questions from shadow housing secretary James Cleverly, who focused on early prison releases and the wider justice system as his core line of questioning. Here's a quick recap of their exchange:

• Cleverly began with the proposed changes to the Sentencing Act - asking Lammy to apologise to the victims of rapists, sexual predators and paedophiles that Cleverly claims he is planning to release early
• Lammy backed his party's early release scheme, telling the Commons it is a "serious issue" and stressed that every decision is based on "public safety" and "delivering justice"
• Turning to the figures, Cleverly said Labour has released 50,000 prisoners early in two years - Lammy responded in turn with his own statistics, pointing to the Tory's early release scheme which he said freed 10,000 offenders while the party left the prison system with 83 empty cells
• Changing tack slightly in a later question, Cleverly asked Lammy to ditch the proposal to get rid of trials by jury
• The deputy prime minister told Cleverly to "get on the detail" as he said the proposal is a "threshold change" and that the "vast majority" of criminal cases are dealt with by magistrates
• There were respective attacks on the two parties' policing records as Cleverly told the Chamber police numbers have dropped by 2,000 since Labour came in, while Lammy said the country lost 16,000 officers under the Tories

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Ellis' conditional pardon is a "landmark moment" for justice and for domestic abuse survivors, the lawyer who acted for Ellis’ grandchildren has said.

"The granting of a conditional pardon for Ruth Ellis is a landmark moment for the family, for the British justice system and for domestic abuse survivors who’ve been failed by the state," Katy Colton says this afternoon outside the Houses of Parliament.

"Our application demonstrated that Ruth suffered what is now known as battered woman syndrome and that the cumulative impact of the appalling abuse that she sustained would, under the law as it stands today, have led to a different outcome."

The Ministry of Justice has called Ruth Ellis' conditional pardon "an act of mercy recognising the historic injustice of the death penalty in this exceptional case".

The ministry explains that the application lodged by Ellis' grandchildren had been brought on the basis that the crime she committed was "profoundly shaped" by the abuse and trauma she experienced.

Had the trial occurred under modern law, the MoJ explains, Ellis could have put forward partial defences of loss of control or diminished responsibility.

Which, today, might have reduced her conviction from murder to manslaughter.

"The law has changed over the decades and now better reflects our improved understanding of the impact of intimate partner violence, including coercive and controlling behaviour, on individual’s subsequent actions – abuse that is disproportionately suffered by women," the ministry says.

A letter written by Ruth Ellis just before she died said her solicitor could reveal "the truth".

The day before her execution, Ellis wrote to George Rogers, the Labour MP for Kensington North who campaigned for her to be pardoned, appearing resigned to her fate but writing that she was "quite well".

"I gather you will speak to Mr Victor Mishcon [her lawyer], and then you will find out the truth," she wrote in the letter.

Ellis thanked Rogers for offering to take her son on holiday, and expressed her gratitude for his efforts to help her. She signed off with a final "goodbye".

• Find out more about the letter here

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Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Catherine Atkinson has released a statement following the conditional pardon.

"For 70 years, Ruth Ellis’s family have carried the weight of what happened to her. Today we recognise the exceptional circumstances surrounding her case and the impact they had on her life," she says.

"I want to thank her grandchildren for their determination in bringing this case forward, and for making sure her story was finally heard."

Image source, PA Media

The King has granted Ruth Ellis a conditional pardon after she was convicted of the murder of her lover David Blakely and given a sentence of execution in 1955.

At the time, the charge carried a mandatory death sentence.

Her family had long requested a conditional pardon saying she had been abused by her victim.

Ellis has posthumously been granted a conditional pardon - one of the options available to the British monarch under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy.

It's not an acquittal - and doesn't undo her conviction - only the courts have that option for relevant cases - but the pardon swaps her sentence for a lesser one.

Unlike court appeals, pardons can consider broader factors, such as social developments, that may render a conviction or its resulting punishment inappropriate or unfair.

Image source, PA Media

The granddaughter of Ruth Ellis says "justice has finally been done" after her posthumous conditional pardon was announced, and that her family is "deeply grateful" to Justice Secretary David Lammy.

In a statement, Laura Enston says the pardon matters profoundly to her family. It "does not undo what happened 71 years ago. It does not restore the lives that were broken - the children left behind, the years lost. But it says, formally and finally, that Ruth should not have been executed; that the justice system failed her".

Enston says her grandmother was a victim of sustained and brutal abuse.

"Her children – our mother and uncle – never recovered. My uncle took his own life; my mother’s trauma left her unable to be the parent we needed. The shadow of Ruth’s execution has fallen across two generations. We have carried shame that was never ours to bear."

She says she hopes the story of Ruth Ellis serves as a reminder that "the justice system must reckon with the abuse that drives women to the edge" and must "never be afraid to acknowledge when it has got things wrong".

We can now bring you more of Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy's comments about the conditional pardon granted to Ruth Ellis.

"I have the honour to say that His Majesty the King has accepted our advice to grant Ruth Ellis a conditional pardon, the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom," Lammy told MPs.

"While the pardon does not claim she was innocent of killing David Blakely, it replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment to recognise a profound injustice in this exceptional case.

"We hope this brings a measure of peace to Ruth Ellis' family who have carried the weight of what happened to her for over 70 years."

As we reported moments ago, towards the end of the session Lammy announced that Ruth Ellis had been granted a conditional pardon - which is one that "substitutes one sentence for another". Her sentence has been commuted from execution to life in prison.

Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain - with her execution taking place on 13 July 1955 after she was convicted of murdering her lover David Blakely.

Ellis shot Blakely outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead, London, following a tumultuous relationship involving infidelity on both sides.

Last year, her grandchildren called for a posthumous pardon, saying she was physically and emotionally abused by her partner before she killed him - they applied to Lammy at the time for a conditional pardon.

Image source, PA Archive/PA Images

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has now left the Commons as this week's Prime Minister's Question concludes.

In our next post, we'll bring you more information about Ruth Ellis, who Lammy announced is being granted a conditional posthumous pardon.

Image source, Getty Images

Lammy is then asked about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK in 1955 after being convicted for the murder of her abusive lover.

The deputy prime minister announces that the King has granted Ellis a conditional pardon, meaning that her sentence will be commuted from execution to life in prison.

He adds that he hopes the decision provides some peace to her family.

• We'll bring you more on the Ruth Ellis case soon

MPs seemingly presenting their wish lists to Andy Burnhampublished at 12:42 BST

12:42 BST

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

Some MPs are using this session to present their wish lists to Andy Burnham, who is widely expected to take over as PM later this month.

Labour’s Emily Darlington called for the government to ban political deepfakes by backing her amendment to the Representation of the Peoples Act.

Green MP Emily Chowns urged the government to back electoral reform - something Burnham has spoken about in the past.

Green Party Westminster leader Ellie Chowns says "we urgently need to rebuild trust in democracy" and asks if Lammy agrees that proportional representation is an idea that needs to come "before the next general election".

Lammy says he's "pleased" that the issue of votes and democracies has been raised.

But he says in local elections, a Green Councillor in Lewisham described Lammy and the shadow foreign secretary "as coconuts".

"Her party looked the other way, kept her candidate in post and have rewarded that candidate with a council job," he says.

Lib Dems deputy leader Daisy Cooper turns the focus from justice to Nigel Farage, starting her intervention by noting that the Reform UK's leader has been known to frequently use the phrase "leave means leave".

But it seems his latest stunt is to leave this place just to return after not just one referendum on his behaviour, but possibly two, she says.

Will the deputy PM delay the resignation until the standards investigation into Farage is complete, Cooper asks.

Lammy replies that everyone can see the Reform leader is just trying to distract that he's "up to his neck" in sleaze.

Farage has serious questions to answer and Labour won't be part of the circus, he adds.

Lammy says the by-election is claimed to be the people versus the establishment - but in fact it’s the politician who is pals with crypto billionaires versus Count Binface, to huge laughter in the chamber.

Cooper says it's clear it's a two horse race, to more laughter.

She goes to on ask about an MI5 agent who attacked his girlfriend, and asks if the deputy PM offer her a full apology.

Lammy says he will arrange for the agent's former girlfriend to meet the security minister.

Image source, UK Parliament

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

Reform MPs Richard Tice and Lee Anderson cry “chicken” and “cowards” as David Lammy attacks their leader for using his by-election bid as a “distraction” from sleaze.

Tice even ventures a slightly half hearted chicken impression.

Labour, the Tories, the Lib Dems and Greens have all said they will not be standing in Clacton.

As we mentioned earlier, Farage is giving PMQs a miss.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

Interestingly, James Cleverly chose to turn DPMQs into justice questions - trying to hold David Lammy to account for his other role as justice secretary.

He repeatedly pushed Lammy to apologise for letting serious criminals out early - before turning to controversial plans to scrap some jury trials.

Lammy hit back with statistics about the Conservatives’ record on early release and prison closures.

Cleverly says the government is "stripping" money where it is needed and spending it on welfare.

He claims the welfare bill has "ballooned" by £20bn this year alone.

Cleverly adds that during the Tory government there were more police officers at any time in British history and since Labour took power that number has dropped by 2,000.

He says the incoming prime minister, which is likely to be Andy Burnham, should come out and condemn this plan.

Lammy replies, saying Cleverly "cannot count" and the country lost 16,000 police officers when he was in government.

He says people haven't forgotten what the Tories did to our country, adding: "I'll take our record to theirs any day of the week".

Image source, UK Parliament

Today's debate a reminder of the odd transitional phase British politics is inpublished at 12:29 BST

12:29 BST

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

The subject chosen by Sir James Cleverly for today’s session of PMQs has been pretty extensively debated in different forms over the past two years.

One of the first acts of this Labour government was for Shabana Mahmood, then the justice secretary, to announce that prisons were significantly more overcrowded than ministers had realised and as a result more prisoners would have to be released earlier in their sentences.

That policy has continued since Lammy succeeded Mahmood as justice secretary.

Yet what we do not know is whether Andy Burnham (the “soon to be prime minister” as James Cleverly put it) agrees with the way in which the early release scheme has been implemented.

After all it was this time last week, just after PMQs, when Burnham made a significant policy intervention in a different area of home affairs policy, saying as prime minister that he would seek to deport the ringleader of a notorious grooming gang in Rochdale.

It is very unlikely anything like that will come today on this subject area, but it’s a reminder of the slightly odd transitional phase British politics is currently in.