UK politics live: Labour has ‘no plans’ to send prisoners to Estonia to ease overcrowding, says No 10

Downing Street says plan to relocate prisoners from England and Wales was from previous Conservative administration

Former chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick appeared on the media this morning, and said that recently visiting prisons for the first time he felt concerned about his own personal security.

He told listeners of the BBC Today programme:

I've been in a lot of prisons, what I've noticed in some I've visited recently is for the first time I've felt concerned for my own personal security - they're dangerous and frightening places, and staff are struggling to keep control.

That will remove the immediate pressure, I don't think the government had any alternative in the short-term other than to do these releases.

But it's a bit like squeezing a balloon - you release the pressure in one place but the bulge goes somewhere else - and the real problem now is, first of all, some of those released will re-offend for certain, and some of those released, a lot of those released, I fear will end up homeless because there simply isn't the accommodation for them.