Tories blame Brown for jails crisis

12 April 2012

The Tories have attempted to pin the blame for the beleaguered Home Office's troubles on Chancellor Gordon Brown.

In a new tactic designed to cause the Labour Government maximum embarrassment over the department's series of scandals and gaffes, shadow chancellor George Osborne claimed Mr Brown was the "root cause" of the problems.

It came as a dispute escalated between the Prison Service and the Prison Officers' Association (POA), raising the prospect of industrial action in already overstretched jails and also possible court action.

Mr Osborne said the Chancellor had "prematurely frozen" the Home Office budget and blocked new private finance initiative (PFI) jail projects because they would add to the Government borrowing figures. He also blamed him for supporting the £20 billion ID card scheme instead of building new prisons, and for setting too many performance targets.

"Gordon Brown likes to claim he has been the one running the Government for the past 10 years, but when trouble arrives he quickly vanishes," Mr Osborne said.

"His Treasury targets, his skewed PFI accounts and his extraordinary decision to freeze the Home Office budget, have all contributed to the current crisis in our prisons and the criminal justice system. Protecting the public should be the first duty of anyone aspiring to be Prime Minister, but it is clear that Gordon Brown's political meddling is letting the country down and making the country less secure."

Meanwhile, POA general secretary Brian Caton criticised the Home Office for failing to plan staffing for a new 350-bed jail in Merseyside, announced earlier this month.

The union would urge its members not to co-operate with Prison Service requests for officers to transfer from other jails on temporary contracts, he said.

"We heard at about the time John Reid became Home Secretary that it was going ahead, so they've had eight months to get ready," added Mr Caton.

A Prison Service spokeswoman said court action was now being considered over the issue. "The Prison Service is considering the options available, including court action against the union," she said.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT