Bring back Borstals! Top cop slams parents’ lack of discipline
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 705 Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
Former Met Police Detective Peter Bleksley joins Camilla Tominey and Tim Stanley to discuss if parents should be held criminally responsible for their children’s crimes.
Following the announcement of government plans to revamp parenting orders, Peter argues that more discipline is needed in modern parenting and that longer jail terms work as a deterrent for repeat offenders.
The Justice Secretary David Lammy revealed the plans to give courts extra powers to punish breaches of parenting order last week as part of efforts to prevent a repeat of the Southport murders, where the parents of triple killer Axel Rudakubana were castigated for failing to act on his erratic and violent behaviour.
Producer: Emma Williams
Social Media Producer: Conor Clark
Executive Producer: Charlotte Seligman
Video Producer: Will Walters
Studio Operator: Meghan Searle
Editor: Camilla Tominey
Highlights
- Peter Bleksley discusses rise of London teen shoplifting 'link-ups'
- David Lammy proposes courts get extra powers to jail parents for parenting order breaches.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. Do we need to bring back Borstals and should parents be sent to jail for their children's criminal behaviour? |
| 0:16.3 | We speak to former top cop Peter Blexley who says there are two things missing when it comes to raising children in the UK today. |
| 0:23.8 | Discipline and deterrent. |
| 0:25.7 | Welcome to The Daily Tea with me Tim Stanley. |
| 0:27.8 | And me, Camilla Tomini. Tim, we're going to discuss whether we should bring back Borstals. |
| 0:44.9 | You obviously went to one because compared to me, you were state-educated. |
| 0:49.2 | I meant to be this person that because I was privately educated, |
| 0:52.1 | I consider anyone who wasn't to have attended a |
| 0:54.3 | borstal. |
| 0:54.8 | It was a bit like a borstal in the sense that I was always running away. |
| 0:57.6 | Were you? |
| 0:58.1 | Yes. |
| 0:58.5 | You weren't a happy student. |
| 0:59.8 | Not until your Cambridge days. |
| 1:01.6 | And we are joined by former Met Police detective Peter Blexley to discuss whether, first of all, |
| 1:09.0 | we should bring back borstals. |
| 1:10.3 | And secondly, whether parents are |
| 1:11.8 | taking enough responsibility for their children's bad and indeed criminal behaviour. |
| 1:16.5 | Well, I sent a few people to Borstal over the years. |
| 1:20.4 | And remarkably, a couple of months ago, I was making a joke on social media about how I was |
| 1:25.5 | useless at everything. So I felt I qualified to be a minister. |
| 1:30.7 | Not of the clergy, but of the government, obviously. |
... |
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