Starmer says rioters ‘exploited broken prisons system’

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Sir Keir added that the decision to release prisoners early was difficult and “goes against the grain of everything I’ve ever done”, referring to his former role as chief prosecutor. 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 Sir Keir Starmer “And I’m not pretending for one minute that this is a decision I want to make. “They were false choices, and here we are without the prison places that we need.” Sir Keir said that in 2011 he did not doubt that the courts could respond to the riots as needed, but added: “This time, to be honest with you, I genuinely didn’t know.” He continued: “I didn’t want to release prisoners early, I was chief prosecutor for five years, it goes against the grain of everything I’ve ever done. “And if we don’t take tough action across the board, we won’t be able to fix the foundations of the country as we need.” Sir Keir said 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.” He added 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”.