Brazen Tory MP branded ‘hypocrite’ after battle in opposition to jail in personal yard

A Tory MP has been branded a “hypocrite” after criticising the early release of offenders despite having repeatedly blocked the building of a new prison in his area.

Former minister Neil O’Brien pushed back against a new jail being built in his constituency yet has attacked Labour for its emergency measures to deal with prison overcrowding. The brazen Conservative MP used a post on his personal website to call on the Government to “roll out emergency prison places” and “to do more to find the money for more places” in September.

But Mr O’Brien has objected to plans for a new prison site next to existing jail HMP Gartree in Leicestershire. In 2022 he told the Commons: “The Ministry of Justice wants to build a large new prison in my constituency…it is completely the wrong place to build a new prison.” He reignited calls for the plan to be dropped when Labour came to power, telling the government it was a decision “everyone will come to regret for years to come”.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood this week criticised Tory backbenchers “who supported prison building vociferously – as long as those prisons were not getting built anywhere near them”. The Cabinet minister was forced to launch a scheme to release prisoners early from jail in July after the Tories left prisons at the brink of collapse. At the time she said Rishi Sunak and his “gang in No10” were “guilty men” for leaving the new Labour Government with no choice but to free inmates early from prison.

A Labour source said: “This is hypocrisy pure and simple. Neil O’Brien has no right to be opining on how to fix our justice system. He is part of the reason that the Tories failed to deliver on their promise to build more prisons.

“When Labour took office we were faced with a prison system so overcrowded it was on the brink of failure. That crisis must be owned by the Conservatives. The government is taking the difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating, and to fix their mess. Labour will always deem prisons to be of national importance, and they will be built.”

Mr O’Brien said: “I have pointed out two obvious ways ministers should be freeing up prison places: by cutting numbers on remand and the number of foreign prisoners. These groups have grown massively and now account for a third of prisoners.

“Rather than moaning at me, ministers should be sorting this, but are making the problem worse, by cutting court sitting days and abandoning the Rwanda scheme. My local council is run by Labour and the Lib Dems. They oppose the new prison and I support the local decision.

“The planning inspector agreed it was the wrong place but the last Conservative government granted it planning permission anyway. While we should build new prisons it is not true that there are no alternatives to letting these dangerous people out of jail.”

Labour has announced plans to accelerate plans to deport 10,000 foreign criminals and look at speeding up the process of releasing inmates who have been recalled to prison after previously being freed. The Government has also committed to creating 14,000 new prison places.

The Tories had planned to cut crown court sitting days by 2% but Labour have since added 500 days. Ms Mahmood has also announced plans to allow magistrates to issue prison sentences for up to a year – a doubling of their current powers. The move will save approximately 2,000 days in the Crown Court, which deals with the most serious cases.