Sunak and ministers are ‘guilty men’ in prisons crisis, says justice secretary

Shabana Mahmood says Tories left country threatened with total breakdown of law and order

• Keir Starmer: The Tories left behind a mountain of mess. In one week, we've begun to clear it'

Rishi Sunak and his former ministers are the guilty men" who should be held responsible for the most disgraceful dereliction of duty" by failing to address the prisons crisis, the justice secretary has said.

Speaking as she set out plans to release thousands of inmates early to ease pressure in overcrowded jails, Shabana Mahmood said the Conservatives had left the country threatened with a total breakdown of law and order".