Kemi Badenoch has unveiled plans for the largest prison-building programme since the Victorian era.
The Conservative leader has approved proposals for 50,000 new prison places, expanding the estate by more than 50 per cent as she vows to reverse what she calls Labour’s soft approach to justice.
The programme would be funded primarily by cutting the foreign aid budget to £1billion a year.
Mrs Badenoch said the additional capacity would enable a future Conservative government to scrap Labour’s early-release scheme and end the effective ban on short prison sentences for crimes including shoplifting and carrying a knife.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy said Britain had shown criminals too much “understanding” in recent years while failing to impose sufficient punishment.
“I think we’ve done enough understanding,” he said. “We need to return consequences to the criminal justice system.”
The Conservatives have announced plans to fund 50,000 new jail cells a day after Labour’s latest early-release scheme saw hundreds of offenders walk free
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said a massive prison-building programme was the only way to end Labour’s “reckless” early-release scheme
The announcement comes days after Labour’s latest early-release scheme saw hundreds of offenders leave jails across the country, scenes Mr Timothy described as “disgusting”.
Other developments include:
The prison expansion is intended to restore the Conservatives’ traditional reputation as the party of law and order, while rebuilding public confidence in an overstretched criminal justice system.
Mr Timothy told the Mail that he believes in the “Prison Works” mantra, popularised by former Tory home secretary Michael Howard during the 1990s.
The £2billion-a-year construction programme would be financed through deep cuts to foreign aid and Whitehall’s communications and publicity operation.
Mr Timothy said Labour’s softer approach was eroding public trust in the criminal justice system.
“People expect crime to be punished,” he said. “And when criminals are put away, they expect them to serve their sentence.”
The landmark policy has been announced on the eve of the Conservative Party conference, where Mrs Badenoch will tell members to prepare for the possibility of a snap election within months.
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On Friday, she said building a new generation of prisons was the only way to end Labour’s “reckless” early-release scheme.
“A violent criminal doesn’t become less dangerous just because the Government has run out of prison cells,” she said.
“Labour cancelled our plans to rent spaces abroad and now they are stuck. Their answer is to let dangerous offenders out even earlier instead of building the prison spaces we need.
“The first duty of government is to keep law-abiding people safe. Full prisons are a reason to build more cells, not release more criminals onto our streets.”
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Should we prioritise building more prisons over funding overseas aid for those most in need?
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy said Labour’s soft approach was undermining public confidence in the criminal justice system
The Tory prisons programme will be funded mainly by cuts to foreign aid. The Conservatives had already pledged to slash international development from 0.44 per cent of GDP to 0.1 per cent.
Under the party’s new plan it will be cut to just £1billion a year, saving a further £2.5billion. Last year, Britain spent £13.1billion on overseas aid.
Another £1billion will be cut from the budget of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, partly by reversing £700million in planned increases under Labour.
A further £500million will be trimmed from the Cabinet Office’s spendings on communications consultants, which Tory sources said included ‘highly questionable spending on social media influencers’ to promote Labour initiatives.
In total, the cuts are designed to generate £4.2billion a year in savings. Half of this will be used to pay down the deficit under the Tories’ ‘golden rule’ on fiscal sustainability.
The rest will be used to fund the biggest prison-building programme since the mid-19th century.
A review will be launched later this year to look at potential sites. Many of the places will be delivered by expanding existing jails, but others will be built on new sites as part of a seven-year construction programme.
Mr Timothy said a future Tory government would legislate to speed up the planning process, which has led to previous expansion programmes being delayed.
Labour Party chairman Bridget Phillipson said: ‘These proposals are just not credible from a party who left our criminal justice system at breaking point.’