Starmer: 'shocking' prisons crisis is worse than I feared

More than 20,000 to go free early as jails approach capacity | Conservatives accused of ‘act of self-harm to country’

- Pippa Crerar, Rajeev Syal, Jessica Elgot

The "shocking" prisons crisis is even worse than feared, Keir Starmer has said, as the government prepares to release tens of thousands of inmates early to stop jails becoming full.

The prime minister suggested he was opposed to freeing violent criminals and sex offenders as ministers prepared to announce the terms of a new prisoner release scheme for England and Wales tomorrow. The Guardian understands they are examining whether domestic abusers can be excluded.

The scheme is expected to allow early release for those who have served 40% of their sentence, instead of 50% under current rules for inmates serving determinate sentences. Whitehall sources say this could lead to the release of more than 20,000 people over many months.

The former Tory justice secretary Alex Chalk is understood to have pushed Rishi Sunak for months to change those rules, but the then prime minister is said by insiders to have repeatedly overruled him, believing it would be politically toxic and numbers could be managed within existing systems.

Speaking to reporters on a trip to the Nato summit in the US, Starmer said the Conservative government had been reckless in letting prisons come within a fortnight of reaching overflow. "It is shocking for our country to have got into a state where we have too many prisoners and not enough prison places," he said. "To a point where any government is now in a position where it has to release prisoners early. That is a shocking indictment. That is a total failure of government."