- author, Paul Seddon
- role, Political reporter
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Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted to reduce the number of people in prison through new initiatives to reduce reoffending.
Speaking at his first press conference as Prime Minister, Sir Keir said too many people were returning to prison “relatively soon after being sent there”.
He added that interventions to stop young people committing knife crime would be an early priority for the new government.
But he said prison overcrowding could not be “solved overnight”, adding: “We have too many prisoners and not enough prisons”.
This comes after he appointed as Minister for Prisons a businessman who had previously said prisons should only hold one-third of the inmates.
“We’re addicted to punishment,” James Timpson, boss of a shoe repair chain which has a policy of employing ex-prisoners, told Channel 4 earlier this year.
The Labour Party, which won a landslide victory in Thursday’s general election and returned to power for the first time since 2010, has promised to review sentencing.
The government also inherits a burgeoning crisis in Britain’s prisons and has already pledged to maintain the previous Conservative government’s early release scheme to ease current overcrowding.
Last week the Prison Governors’ Association, which represents 95 per cent of prison governors in England and Wales, warned that prisons would run out of space within days.
Former Conservative justice secretary Alex Chalk first announced plans to release prisoners in early October 2023.
Mr Chalke, who lost his seat to the Liberal Democrats in the general election, told MPs at the time that “our prison population has never been higher” and that the UK “must make better use of our prisons”.
But he added: “To keep British people safe we must do everything we can to ensure we always have enough prison places to house the most dangerous criminals.”
Details of Labour’s review are yet to be revealed, but Timpson’s appointment is an early indication that changes to the way the sector is approached may be under consideration.
Lord Keir appointed him to the House of Lords and allowed him to become Minister for Prisons in the Ministry of Justice.
The businessman told a Channel 4 podcast in February that prison was a “disaster” for around a third of prisoners, and for a further third “probably shouldn’t be there”.
He said the fact that too many people are being jailed for “far too long” was an example of “evidence being ignored because of the sentiment for punishment”.
“We depend on the sentence, we depend on the punishment,” he added.
The prison “escalator”
Asked about his comments at a Downing Street press conference, Sir Keir did not take a view on whether he agreed with those estimates.
But, he added, “We need to be clear about how we use prisons.”
“For many people [who] Even if they are released from prison, they return to prison relatively soon after.
“This is a big problem in this country and we need to break it.”
He said the party particularly wanted to reduce knife crime, pointing to plans to set up a network of “youth hubs”.
Sir Keir, a former lawyer, added: “I’ve sat at the back of so many criminal courts and watched people go up the escalator through the system and into prison.
“I often think that if they had the support, many of them could have gotten out of the system sooner.”
Labour wants to add 20,000 prison capacity by allowing ministers to override local councils on planning decisions.
But it also plans to maintain a system implemented by the previous administration that allows some minor offenders to be released early by up to 70 days.
Sir Keir said Conservative ministers had created a “mess” by not building enough prisons and mismanaging the prison budget.
Defending his decision to maintain the early release scheme, he added: “We don’t need any prisons. You can’t build a prison in 24 hours.”
The latest official figures, published on Friday, showed that prison population in England and Wales stood at 87,453 out of an “operational capacity” of 88,864.
The SNP-run Scottish Government, which runs Scotland’s prisons, plans to release between 500 and 550 prisoners over the coming months.
It came shortly after Sir Keir convened the first Labour government in 14 years and told senior party leaders he expected them to adhere to the “highest standards of probity and honesty” within the party and across departments.
“The whole country expects the Government to deliver on its priorities,” the Prime Minister told ministers, according to a Downing Street report of the meeting.
After forming his Cabinet, Sir Keir faced tough questions from reporters at his first press conference as prime minister.
Asked about tax increases, Sir Keir said he had taken “tough decisions” and would face the challenges “openly and honestly”.
The new Labour government faces tough fiscal choices with major spending cuts expected.
But Thursday’s landslide election victory gives Labour “a clear mandate to govern in all four corners of the UK”, Sir Keir said, announcing plans to tour all four nations in the coming days.
The final results of the general election were also announced on Saturday, with the Liberal Democrats winning in the Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire constituencies.
The results were initially expected to be known around 5am BST on Friday but a recount meant they were delayed until Saturday afternoon.
Angus MacDonald won the majority by defeating SNP candidate Drew Hendry by 2,160 votes.
This means that the Liberal Democrats won 72 seats in Westminster, six of which were in Scotland, meaning the Liberal Democrats overtook the Scottish Conservatives to become Scotland’s third largest party in Westminster.
Across the UK, Labour won 412 seats to the Conservatives’ 121.
