Suella Braverman launched a bizarre attack on her own party’s policies, urging the Conservatives to admit they “shamefully” did not build enough prisons while in office.
As Labour announced a series of measures to ease the overcrowding crisis facing UK jails, the ex-home secretary said the Tories needed to “take responsibility for what we left undone”.
Sir Keir Starmer’s newly appointed justice secretary Shabana Mahmood warned on Friday that without immediate action to address overcrowding, prisons would run out of space within weeks leading to “a total breakdown of law and order”.
Ms Mahmood blamed the Conservatives’ failure to build enough prison spaces as she set out plans to reduce the proportion of the sentences most prisoners must serve in jail from 50 per cent to 40 per cent for at least 18 months.
Tory former justice secretary Alex Chalk said he had proposed the same measures announced by Labour while in office – but they were shelved to avoid a political backlash.
Responding to the policy on X, Ms Braverman said she had opposed the plans “both inside and outside government”.
In a stunning attack on the Conservative Party, Ms Braverman wrote: “We managed to stop the government doing it. Labour is picking up Tory ideas and putting the public at risk.”
And the backbench MP, who is expected to run to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader, said: “Everyone and his mother should run to be leader.
“But we’ve all got to start taking responsibility for what we did. And for the things we shamefully left undone.
“Such as not building enough prisons.”
The attack will be seen as a political gift to Sir Keir, and has been compared to the infamous note left by former Treasury minister Liam Byrne when Labour last left office declaring that there was “no money” left.
The note was repeatedly used to paint Labour as financially irresponsible, and Ms Braverman’s admission is likely to be relied on by Labour figures to attack the Tories’ record in government.
The post came just days after a public spat between the former home secretary and her leadership rival Kemi Badenoch, who accused Ms Braverman of having a “very public nervous breakdown”.
Ms Badenoch reportedly made the breakdown comments as the Conservative frontbench met for the first time since losing power on Tuesday.
Ms Mahmood set out in a speech on Friday at HMP Five Wells how prisons were “on the point of collapse”, with barely 700 places left in the adult male estate and jails operating at 99% capacity since the start of 2023.
If prisons ran out of cell space, she warned, the country faced the prospect of “van-loads of dangerous people circling the country with nowhere to go”.
Ms Mahmood said: “The police would have to use their cells as a prison overflow, keeping officers off the streets. Soon, the courts would grind to a halt, unable to hold trials.
“With officers unable to act, criminals could do whatever they want, without consequence. We could see looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight.
“In short, if we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system. And a total breakdown of law and order.”