Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has rightly called for Andy Burnham to bring forward emergency legislation in order to stop the early release of hundreds of prisoners. The PM announced last week that he was pausing the scheme, which would have seen roughly 700 more inmates released in September.

There's just one problem: the Tories introduced the controversial early release scheme back in 2023. Guess who backed it at the time? Yep, Kemi Badenoch. In 2023, early release was part of a bid to stop prison overcrowding, first for 18, then 70 days. In fact, under the Tories, some 10,000 prisoners were let out early.

Worse still, this was caused by a failure to build new prisons, leaving just 100 spare male prison places by the time Labour came to power. How many prisons did the Tories shut? 23. How many net prison places were added between 2010 and 2014? Just 500. No wonder Reform UK Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf says: “Early release has been a disastrous policy ever since the Tories first introduced it – they even tried to expand in 2024, which Kemi Badenoch voted for.”

How can we forget the failings of the Tories? The party which promised you again and again to bring immigration down to the tens of thousands, increased it to record-breaking levels. The party which promised to fix Britain's productivity crisis never did. The party which promised to get public finances under control presided over record debt. The party which promised Brexit meant Brexit, botched Brexit entirely.

The party which promised to be on the side of small businesses, never got rid of the IR35 rules stuffing contractors and freelancers. And now its leader wants you to believe it can fix a prison crisis it created? Pull the other one. From crime to immigration, from the economy to housing, it was the Tories what done it – Labour merely made matters worse.