Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has said the government has had two years to think of alternatives to letting people out of prison early.

Speaking on GB News he said: “Think back just two years when there was the first early release of prisoners, and it was an early release that yes, was because the prisons were full.

“And the people came out and they celebrated and they drank champagne and they toasted Sir Keir Starmer.

“But now, with the Labour government in office for two years, we find that people are going to be let out again, and we’re told it’s a similar emergency. But actually, that is not true.

“It is a policy decision that was based on a report by former Conservative minister David Gauke that was turned into legislation last year under the Sentencing Act 2026.

“What happened is that the government decided that it wanted to reduce the overall prison population rather than building many more prison spaces. And to do that, it has accepted a system proposed by David Gauke that means a prisoner will do a third, a third, a third.

“So some brigand sentenced to 15 years in prison will do five years in prison, five years on surveillance, and five years free.

“That is a policy choice, but it leads to fundamental dishonesty in sentencing, a fundamental effort to pull the wool over the eyes of the British people. So that when somebody is found guilty and appears before the judge and is sentenced to 15 years in durance vile, we know that that means five years.

“Now it’s true that there have been early release schemes to encourage good behaviour. There have been tariffs that have meant people haven’t served their full sentence for many years.

“I happen to think that has undermined confidence in the criminal justice system, and I think the approach many politicians have taken, of all parties, of constantly arguing for higher sentences, which are then remitted, has been a mistake. I think sentences should be sentences.

“But this is the biggest cheat of all, and it’s being predicated on an emergency, which is not true. There are other ways of dealing with it, of finding more places urgently.

“For example, the Shepton Mallet prison, which was closed in 2013 or 2014, is now used as a tourist attraction. Well, why not buy it back and put 160, 170 prisoners in it?

“Why not think of that prison ship or the ship that was used for illegal immigrants that was in Dorset a few years ago? Why not use that to put prisoners in? Why not use some of the camps that have been earmarked for illegal immigrants?

“Because then they won’t be getting out of their prisons into the community, and the problems that arise from putting lots of young men into small rural areas don’t arise because they’re kept in place.

“There are solutions if the government wanted them. It doesn’t want those solutions. It wants, as a matter of criminal justice policy, to let dangerous people out.

“And if that’s what it thinks, it should say so honestly, rather than trying to pretend it’s all an emergency.”