Sir Keir Starmer is facing a fresh overcrowding crisis behind bars as he was urged to deport thousands more foreign criminals.
The number of prisoners soared to a six-month high despite Labour’s controversial decision to release thousands of inmates last year to ease overcrowding.
The prison population hit 87,556 on Monday, leaving just 1,284 spaces available, according to new data published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
Prisons Minister James Timpson has already ruled out releasing thousands more criminals early, meaning Labour’s hopes of avoiding more crises will hinge on sentencing reforms designed to send fewer offenders to prison.
But Reform MP Lee Anderson said: “The prison population in England and Wales has reached a six-month high of nearly 90,000. Facilities in England and Wales are at 98% capacity, forcing the early release of hardened criminals.
“Recent analysis shows that overall imprisonment for foreign nationals is 27% higher than for British citizens.
“This is not just a problem of prison spaces, but a problem of unbridled illegal immigration. Reform UK will end the population explosion and reclaim our prison system.”
Almost 10,500 foreign criminals are locked up in England and Wales, Ministry of Justice figures show.
Shadow prisons minister Kieran Mullan said: “Labour is failing to grip the challenges facing our prisons.
“After months of waiting they finally acted on our calls to get more people out of prison who are waiting for their day in court.
“That delay is costly and even now, they aren’t making full use of our courts or getting more foreign offenders out of our prisons. If they fixed those issues, we would have thousands less people in prison.”
Some 1,750 convicts were released in both September and October under emergency measures to ease the overcrowding crisis behind bars.
Criminals were let out after 40% of their sentences, rather than halfway through, in a desperate bid to prevent the system collapsing.
Prisons last year had just 80 cells left, meaning police could have been forced to stop arresting offenders.
Prisons Minister James Timpson has said “ there are no more emergency measures” to enact.
David Spencer, Head of Crime and Justice at Policy Exchange: “It’s right that the prison population is increasing – more criminals should be sent to prison for the misery they cause – the problem is we don’t have enough cells for every criminal that should be behind bars.
“The Government needs to urgently build more cells and more prisons – there must be no more delay or hand-wringing by ministers or senior civil servants.”
Ministers were forced to activate Operation Early Dawn, when defendants were held in police custody and only brought to court if prison places were first confirmed as available.
Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.), Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “Prisons have been asked to do too much, with too little, for too long, and today’s figures reveal that even the early release of thousands of people has given the government only a few more months to solve this problem for good.
“It could not be clearer that further action is necessary. Making sentences longer and longer has put intolerable pressure on the system, and dealing with the consequences takes valuable resources away from preventing crime and supporting victims.
“Ministers have acknowledged that they cannot build their way out of this crisis. We must send fewer people to prison, curb the use of recall after release, and prioritise delivering an effective and responsive probation service that works to cut crime in the community.”
Former Tory Justice Secretary David Gauke, who is now leading Labour’s sentencing review, admitted criminals could be “released earlier” if they obey the rules and complete their rehabilitation courses.
Laying the groundwork for a radical new approach to crime, Mr Gauke added “it’s worth looking at other places where this has happened, it’s worked”.
The former minister said “politicians have operated in a vacuum” by repeatedly calling for more offenders to be locked up.
This, he argued, led to the prison overcrowding crisis.
Mr Gauke has warned the public of a “fundamental shift” in sentencing, adding that justice chiefs have previously believed “the only form of punishment that counts is imprisonment”
He told GB News: “What you can do is rehabilitate. And there are some jurisdictions like Texas, for example; no one would accuse Texas of being a soft touch.
“They found that their prisons were full, then they took action to essentially reward good behaviour for prisoners who were on long sentences, who had committed serious crimes, but if they behaved, stuck by the prison rules, that they worked, they did the courses, that they will be released earlier.
“And crime in Texas has fallen substantially as well.
“It is worth looking at other places where this has happened, it’s worked, and it’s contributed towards reducing crime.”
Ministers have promised to find a total of 14,000 cell spaces in jails by 2031.
It comes as MPs on the Public Accounts Committee said the system faces “total gridlock” as the MoJ forecast prisons to run out of space again in early 2026.
The committee also warned on Friday that the prison and probation service was “entirely reliant” on “uncertain” future measures to prevent it running out of places which it hopes will come from the independent sentencing review expected to be published in the spring.