Badenoch vows to build 50,000 prison places — the biggest expansion since Queen Victoria — by slashing foreign aid

From the Newshound archive · first published 3 October 2026 · last updated 4 October 2026.

Kemi Badenoch has unveiled plans to build 50,000 new prison places, increasing the size of England and Wales's jail estate by more than 50 per cent, funded by cutting the foreign aid budget to £1 billion a year. The announcement, timed to coincide with the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, is designed to end Labour's early-release scheme, which saw hundreds of offenders walk free this week. Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy called the scenes 'disgusting' and declared: 'Prison works.'

Badenoch admitted the previous Tory government added a net 500 prison places in 14 years — but said: 'Full prisons are a reason to build more cells, not release more criminals onto our streets.'

The £2 billion-a-year programme would scrap Labour's policy of releasing prisoners after serving just one-third of their sentence, and reinstate short jail terms for shoplifting and knife-carrying.

Labour chairwoman Bridget Phillipson called the plans 'not credible' from a party that 'closed 23 prisons' — but Burnham's own offer of 14,000 places from converted laundry rooms and storage areas drew ridicule.