Prisoners could possibly be despatched to Estonia in determined bid to deal with Tory jail disaster

Prisoners could be shipped off to Estonia in a desperate bid to tackle the jail crisis.

Ministers are considering the drastic move as they grapple with a dangerous shortage of prison places left by the last Government. Pressure on the overstretched system was made even worse by violent thugs who rioted across the UK during the summer.

Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle did not shoot down the idea, telling Sky News that the Ministry of Justice will be considering measures to deal with the crisis. Dame Angela pointed out that Labour had “inherited an absolute crisis in our prison system with very few places remaining there”.

She said: “I think that colleagues in the [Ministry of Justice] will be considering anything that they can to alleviate the problem. What we cannot have is people who are convicted of perhaps violent or serious crimes not being able to be in jail.”

It is understood that Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has held talks with her Estonian counterpart, Liisa Pakosta. Ms Pakosta told The Telegraph: “The UK and Estonia have a history of successful international cooperation, and such a partnership would create further opportunities to benefit and learn from each other.” However it would require approval from Estonia’s Parliament.

Earlier this week there were reportedly less than 100 beds for men in jails in England and Wales. The shortage last month forced the MoJ to launch Operation Early Dawn – meaning defendants could be kept in police cells and not summoned to court until a jail space was free.

Keir Starmer said that during the riots he and his top officials were poring over lists of capacity in the UK’s jails, worried there wouldn’t be spaces. The PM said in a speech: “Every day of that disorder, literally every day, we had to check the precise number of prison places and where those places were to make sure we could arrest, charge and prosecute people quickly.

“Not having enough prison places is about as fundamental a failure as you can get and those people throwing rocks, torching cars, making threats, they didn’t just know the system was broken, they were betting on it, gaming it.”

Later this month prisoners will start being released after serving just 40% of their sentence. This is down from 50%, with the Government saying it had no choice. But it has said that the most violent offenders, terrorists and those deemed the most dangerous won’t be eligible.