Three weeks into his premiership, Andy Burnham has “hit bumps in the road” in the estimation of one long-serving Labour MP with the row over the early release of some prisoners from jail.

His political opponents are already sharpening their attacks, believing they have found an issue with which to discomfit a new prime minister early in his time in office who had, until now, displayed a pretty deft political touch.

Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This the most important decision Andy Burnham has made since he became prime minister and he’s got it wrong.”

For Labour MPs, however, this week has shown Burnham is prepared to confront difficult choices and take decisions which, as he said in his first speech in Downing Street, are “more about problem solving than point scoring”.

Burnham’s first two weeks in the job were pretty problem free, with a succession of announcements, from a cap on bus fares to a determination to overhaul of social care, along with a blitz of social media videos, all designed to portray a more relaxed PM with a focus on everyday issues.

The overcrowding crisis in our prisons has presented him with a dilemma for which there are only unpalatable choices.

Crucially too, they are some of the first difficult choices Burnham has had to make in office.

The issue long predates his arrival in Downing Street. In 2023, with space in jails on the verge of running out, the last Conservative government started releasing prisoners 18 days early. That was only a temporary fix.

Just days after becoming prime minister in July 2024, Sir Keir Starmer had to contemplate a more far-reaching prisoner release scheme, saying “it is shocking for our country to have got into a state where we have too many prisoners and not enough prison places”.

In January this year, Sir Keir’s government passed the Sentencing Act under which several thousand prisoners will be released early starting this autumn, including some convicted of very serious crimes.

Andy Burnham, aware of how sensitive this would be, immediately ordered a review.

His frustration was evident when he announced he was removing some categories of prisoner from early release, rapists and child sex offenders among them, but not others.

“The truth is I wanted to go even further,” he said, “I have pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do”.

The Conservatives seized on the fact that his decisions mean that among those still being let out early will be some who committed grooming-related crimes as well as some killers, including those of PC Andrew Harper.

“The Labour government has made mistake after mistake on this early release scheme” said Chris Philp.

“Despite our warnings in Parliament, they initially planned to release rapists and dangerous criminals.

“But, even after Andy Burnham’s review, it turns out they still plan to release cop-killers and men involved in the grooming gang scandal early. It’s an insult to PC Harper’s family and many other victims.”

Up against Sir Keir, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch managed to find issues she could use to force him on to the back foot and into what turned out to be a damaging series of policy shifts. She has seized on the early releases to do try to do the same with his successor.

A first sign of that came when Burnham had to “personally intervene” this week, his spokesperson said, to order officials to find out how many people convicted of grooming-related offences might still be getting early release.

That came after Badenoch highlighted the issue in an open letter to him.

The Conservatives are now considering how they can keep the pressure up when parliament returns in September.

They will aim to place Labour MPs in an uncomfortable position if the issue can be debated in the Commons.

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy has called on the government to introduce “emergency primary legislation as soon as Parliament returns in September,” as he says that is the only way to permanently exclude “killers – like the killers of PC Harper – child abusers and grooming gang members from early release”.

For now, Labour MPs are off on their summer breaks.

“There is no point in bemoaning what is going on” one says phlegmatically, “Andy Burnham’s inherited this vexed issue that our jails are full, it’s in the nature of being PM.”.

“I have every confidence in him. Over all the years Andy Burnham has never been fearful of speaking to victims directly,” adds the MP who has served on the justice select committee.

But they added: “We need to have an honest conversation about who we are sending to jail as we don’t have the spaces to accommodate everyone we are sending.”

Another MP, from the left of the party, said Labour members still felt overwhelmingly positive about their new leader despite the row over prisoner releases.

“They don’t believe he has a magic wand. I don’t blame him for the overcrowding crisis and I don’t think voters do”.

And the MP added “at least we have a recognisably Labour government. It feels like we are in play again, with a second chance to make a difference, maybe even to win a second term”.

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