Sir Keir Starmer is poised to let out 40,000 inmates early as part of an attempt to ease the prisons crisis.
The new Prime Minister is expected to authorise emergency measures this week which would automatically release prisoners halfway through their sentence.
There are currently fewer than 700 spaces left in men’s jails in England and Wales, sources told the Times.
They warned that the “immediate crisis is quite severe”.
An MoJ source said that one option presented to new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is to lower the automatic release point for prisoners to less than 50 per cent through their sentence – something which is expected to be done this week.
Speaking on Saturday, Starmer said it is “impossible” to say the Government will stop the early release of prisoners.
He told a press conference in Downing Street: “We’ve got too many prisoners, not enough prisons.
“That’s a monumental failure of the last government on any basic view of government to get to a situation where you haven’t got enough prison places for prisoners, doesn’t matter what your political stripe, that is a failure of government.
“It’s a failure of government to instruct the police not to arrest. This has not had enough attention, in my view, but it’s what happened. We will fix that, but we can’t fix it overnight and therefore it is impossible to simply say we will stop the early release of prisoners and you wouldn’t believe me if I did say it.”
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Starmer says he will take UK-Germany relationship ‘to the next level’
Sir Keir Starmer has told Olaf Scholz there is “opportunity to further deepen” defence and security ties between the UK and Germany
PA
Sir Keir Starmer has told Olaf Scholz there is “opportunity to further deepen” defence and security ties between the UK and Germany.
The Prime Minister told the German chancellor he was looking forward to “taking the relationship to the next level” during his premiership, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
They said: “The leaders discussed the strong connection between the UK and Germany, and the Prime Minister said he looked forward to taking the relationship to the next level during his premiership.
“The Prime Minister said he believed there was opportunity to further deepen the defence and security ties between both countries, while also building greater economic co-operation.
“Discussing their upcoming visit to the Nato summit in Washington, the leaders reflected on the importance of ensuring strong support to Ukraine for the long term.
“The leaders looked forward to meeting in person next week.”
Starmer posied to let out 40,000 inmates early to ease prisons crisis
Sir Keir Starmer is poised to let out 40,000 inmates early as part of an attempt to ease the prisons crisis
PA
Sir Keir Starmer is poised to let out 40,000 inmates early as part of an attempt to ease the prisons crisis.
The new Prime Minister is expected to authorise emergency measures this week which would automatically release prisoners halfway through their sentence.
There are currently fewer than 700 spaces left in men’s jails in England and Wales, sources told the Times.
They warned that the “immediate crisis is quite severe”.
An MoJ source said that one option presented to new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is to lower the automatic release point for prisoners to less than 50 per cent through their sentence – something which is expected to be done this week.
