Starmer reveals he was forced to check prison capacity every day during riots

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Sir Keir Starmer has said he was forced to check every day whether there were enough prison spaces to arrest and jail suspects during the far right-fuelled riots in the wake of the Southport knife attack. As reports suggested prison capacity had reached an all-time low on Tuesday, with just 100 beds left across all men’s prisons in England and Wales, the prime minister gave a speech from Downing Street lambasting his Tory predecessors for leaving behind “a societal black hole”. Riots broke out in Southport and other parts of England from 30 July Experts previously told The Independent that prison capacity was already “touch and go” before the riots, and on Tuesday The Telegraph reported that there were just 100 spaces left in men’s prisons after a surge in arrests over the Bank Holiday weekend, including 330 at the Notting Hill Carnival. In comments harking back to the 2011 riots, during which Sir Keir was director for public prosecutions, the PM said on Tuesday that one of the main ways to respond to the recent riots was to ensure those involved faced the consequences “within days”, adding: “I had to create the conditions for that.” Sir Keir said he had been sitting in a Cabinet Office briefing room “with a list of prison places across the country on a day-by-day basis, trying to work out how we deal with disorder”.