Kemi Badenoch vows to build 50,000 prison places in seven years

The Tories said the plans would create the vast majority of the additional spaces within a single Parliament

Kemi Badenoch has vowed to deliver 50,000 new prison places by reducing the overseas aid budget to £1 billion a year as part of efforts to end the early release of offenders.

The Conservatives said their plans would see the vast majority of the extra spaces created over the course of a single Parliament, with the full increase completed within seven years.

To fund the changes, the party said international development spending would be cut to £1 billion a year, below a previous Tory commitment to reduce it from 0.3% of gross national income to 0.1%.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport budget would also be cut by £1 billion, while spending on Cabinet Office communications would be reduced by £0.5 billion under the plans.

During the 14 years the Conservatives were in power, around 500 net prison places were created. This takes into account 14,142 places added across existing and new prisons, as well as 13,660 lost, mainly due to dilapidation and closures.

In an attempt to reduce overcrowding, the former Tory government began releasing some offenders before the end of their sentences in 2023.

Read more: 'Justice system, what justice system?': Prisoners cheer and thank Andy Burnham as hundreds walk free in early release scheme

Read more: Tories blast early release scheme as 'insult to victims' – as hundreds of prisoners set to walk free

The current Labour administration has continued early releases under a separate scheme amid ongoing pressure on prison capacity.

Following Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s decision to exempt prisoners guilty of manslaughter, grooming offences and causing or allowing the death of a child from the current programme, the number due to be freed early over the next year has been cut from around 6,000 to around 5,000.

More than 70,000 prisoners have been released from jail since 2024 under the Labour Government’s programme, while more than 10,000 were given early release of up to 70 days under the last Conservative administration, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

Under the current scheme, offenders serving fixed-term sentences will serve a third of their time behind bars before being released, rather than half.

Opposition leader Mrs Badenoch said the Government was continuing to free “dangerous offenders” early, and claimed Labour were “papering over the cracks” after entering office with no measures planned to fix the issue.

Echoing former Conservative home secretary Michael Howard’s mantra that “prison works”, she said “the first duty of government is to keep law-abiding people safe” and pledged to oversee the “biggest prison increase since Queen Victoria”.

“A violent criminal doesn’t become less dangerous just because the Government has run out of prison cells,”

“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.

“And before we forced them to back down and reverse their reckless policy, they had planned to grant early release to rapists and serious child sex offenders including grooming gang leaders.

She added: “If someone keeps burgling homes, assaulting people, stealing or offending again and again, they should have to face the consequences for doing so in prison.

“It is astonishing Labour came into government with no plan to build prison places.”

While the Tory leader acknowledged that the new places added while the previous Conservative government were in power were “nowhere near enough”.

“We now have a plan to solve this issue and build 50,000 new prison places, the biggest prison increase since Queen Victoria, instead of papering over the cracks, investing £2 billion a year in our prisons and reversing Labour’s dangerous early-release schemes.

Nick Timothy, Shadow justice secretary, said jail time works by “punishing and deterring, but most importantly by incapacitating” and that prison “should keep violent and repeat offenders away from the law-abiding public.”

“Right now, we do not have the prison space to incarcerate those who commit serious crime or are repeat offenders,”

“Labour have presided over an early release crisis that has seen thousands of victims told that the perpetrators of the crimes against them will be let out of prison early.

He added: “And they have effectively abolished short sentences and custodial sentences for theft. Judges are deliberately handing out soft sentences to ease pressure on our prisons.”

Labour chairwoman Bridget Phillipson accused the Conservatives of “taking the public for fools” over their record in power.

“Now Kemi Badenoch expects the British people to believe they’ll build 50,000. These proposals are just not credible from a party who left our criminal justice system at breaking point,” she said.

“Labour is fixing the broken system the Tories’ left behind so victims of crime get the justice they deserve.”