We have too many prisoners, says new PM Keir Starmer

Labour, which won a landslide election victory on Thursday, has promised to review sentencing after regaining office for the first time since 2010.

It has also inherited a ballooning crisis in Britain’s jails, and has already committed to keeping the previous Tory government’s early release scheme in place to ease current levels of overcrowding.

The Prison Governors’ Association (PGA), which represents 95% of prison governors in England and Wales, warned last week that jails were due to run out of space within days.

Details of the review are yet to be unveiled, but Mr Timpson’s appointment has offered an early signal that a change of approach may be on the cards in this area.

The businessman, whose firm has a policy of recruiting ex-offenders, has previously said too many people were being sent to jail.

Sir Keir has appointed him a member of the House of Lords, allowing him to take up a post as prisons minister at the Ministry of Justice.

He told a Channel 4 podcast in February that prison was a “disaster” for around a third of prisoners, and another third “probably shouldn’t be there”.

He said too many people being in prison for “far too long” was an example of “evidence being ignored because there is this sentiment around punish and punish”.

“We’re addicted to sentencing, we’re addicted to punishment,” he added.