Give prison officers the lethal weapons ‘they need’, Jenrick says
Officers currently have access to batons and synthetic pepper spray.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has said prison officers dealing with violent inmates must get the lethal weapons “they need” as he defended calls for specialist armed teams in jails.
The Conservatives said secure armouries should be introduced at maximum security jails to be used as a last resort.
They have also called for high-collar stab vests to be provided to frontline officers immediately, citing the threat from inmates after recent attacks on prison officers.
Mr Jenrick said there is a growing risk that a prison officer could be kidnapped or murdered in the line of duty without his proposed reforms.
“We have to stop pussy-footing around Islamist extremists and violent offenders in jails,” he said in a statement.
“Give them Tasers, give them stun grenades, give them baton rounds and give them access to lethal weapons,” he told the Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme on Sky News.
“Let’s ensure the officers have what they need,” he added.
“The Chief Inspector of Prisons himself has said that he can see a situation where people like Islamist terrorists get access through drones to weapons, to explosives, hold prison officers hostage, even kill officers.
“This is going to happen unless the Government take action.”
Mr Jenrick commissioned counter-extremism expert and former prison governor Ian Acheson to carry out a rapid review into the violence.
Mr Acheson said: “The threat to officer safety is now intolerable and must be met decisively by the Government.
“The balance inside too many of our prisons has shifted away from control by the state to mere containment and the price is soaring levels of staff assaults and wrecked rehabilitation.”
It come after attacks by high-profile inmates.
Manchester Arena plotter Hashem Abedi targeted prison staff with boiling oil and homemade weapons in a planned ambush last month.
Southport killer Axel Rudakubana allegedly attacked a prison officer at HMP Belmarsh earlier this month by pouring boiling water over them.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has ordered a snap review into whether stab vests should be used more routinely, and a trial that will give specialised officers dealing with serious incidents Tasers is due to be launched this summer.
Officers already have access to batons and Pava spray, a synthetic form of pepper spray, in men’s prisons in the public sector.
Asked whether he could see that the public would want him to take responsibility for failing prisons as a former government minister, Mr Jenrick told the BBC’s Sunday Morning With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “We should have done more, but look, what Labour are doing now is making the problem worse, and they are reaching for the easy lever of letting prisoners out early.”
More than 10,000 prisoners were released up to 70 days early by the Tory government, according to Ministry of Justice figures.
Under the End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) scheme, announced in October 2023, some prisoners could be freed 18 days before their conditional release date. That was increased to 35 days in March, and then to 70 days in May.
The number of ECSL releases between October 17 and June 30 was 10,083, the data shows.
Responding to the shadow justice secretary’s comments, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “Robert Jenrick is once again being totally dishonest about the Conservatives’ dire record in a desperate attempt to distract from the crisis they left behind in our prison system.
“In 14 years they added fewer than 500 prison places in total and closed 1,600 cells in the high-security estate as assaults on prison officers soared and experienced officers quit.
“This Labour Government is cleaning up the mess the Conservatives created with a £4.7 billion investment to build new prisons and a zero-tolerance approach to violence in the system.”
