UK should refuse aid for countries that won't take back crims in jails

Britain should refuse to give aid or immigration visas to countries which refuse to take back their citizens languishing in UK prisons, a senior Tory has said. 

Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick said that foreign criminals should be deported to free up space in British jails, which are currently dangerous over-capacity.

The shadow justice secretary said that such a move would free 12 per cent of spaces, and that the government should pressure nations to take back their lawbreakers.

It came as Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood admitted prisons in England and Wales will run out of space despite Government plans to build four more.

Labour ministers are having to deal with a major crisis of space in jails in inherited from the Tories in July, and have released thousands of prisoners early.

She also suggested councils could be overruled to push through the construction plans in a bid to grip the overcrowding crisis, and hinted jury trials could be scrapped in some instances to cut the backlog of court cases.

Speaking to Sky News Mr Jenrick, an immigration hardliner, said emptying prisons of foreign inmates was 'the number one thing we can do'

'And how do you do that? Use every lever of the British state to put pressure on those other countries to take back their own criminals,' he said.

'Do things like stopping issuing visas, don't give foreign aid to those countries. If they won't take back their criminals, we shouldn't be supporting them. 

'Those are the sorts of things I would be doing as justice secretary but I would suggest that Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood for ideological reasons are happy to release these people in a way that I certainly never would be.'

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has promised to find a total of 14,000 cell spaces in jails by 2031.

Some 6,400 of these will be at newly built prisons, with £2.3 billion towards the cost over the next two years.

The remaining places will be found by measures including building new wings at existing jails, or by refurbishing cells currently out of action, and an extra £500 million will go towards 'vital building maintenance', the department said on Wednesday.

Asked whether the estate would run out of cells within three years, even with 14,000 extra places, the Justice Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We will run out because even all of that new supply, with the increase in prison population that we will see as a result of that new supply, doesn't help you with the rise in demand, because demand is still rising faster than any supply could catch up with.'

Stressing that 'building alone' will not be enough to deal with the overcrowding crisis, Ms Mahmood also confirmed 'we will have to expand the range of punishment outside of prison', adding: 'That does mean that we will have more offenders monitored outside.'

Prisons will be deemed sites of 'national importance' amid efforts to prevent lengthy planning delays, with Ms Mahmood saying decisions on new prison building will be made by Deputy Prime Minster Angela Rayner, who is the Housing Secretary.

Asked whether the Government would 'fast-track applications and overrule the objections of local people and local councils', Ms Mahmood told BBC Breakfast: 'Yes, so our manifesto commitment was that we consider prisons to be of national importance.

'These are critical infrastructure projects, they are absolutely necessary to make sure the country doesn't run out of prison places.'

Asked about concerns people may have about a prison being built near their homes, she said: 'We have to be honest about the fact that prison building is required.'