The government is “managing the risk” to public safety with its emergency measures to prevent prisons from overcrowding, Sir Keir Starmer said.

Speaking during a trip to Belfast, the prime minister blamed the “terrible inheritance” from the Conservative government and the recent far-right riots on his need to activate Operation Early Dawn.

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The long-standing contingency mechanism delays defendants being summoned to a magistrates’ court until a prison space becomes available, should they be remanded into custody.

It was previously used by the Conservative government and allows defendants to be kept in police cells when prisons reach full capacity.

Asked whether the plan posed a risk to public safety in respect of policing resources being diverted, or more prisoners being bailed, Sir Keir said the government was making “really tough decisions, and nobody wants to take them”.

He blamed this on the “terrible inheritance of prisons that we had as an incoming government from the previous government”.

“There was a basic failure, which is a failure to have enough prison places for the number of prisoners that were being sentenced to prison,” the prime minister said.

“That was about as basic a failure of government from the previous government that you could possibly have got.

“We’ve had to deal with that with the additional strain of the disorder in recent weeks.”

Pressed on the threat to public safety, Sir Keir said the government is “managing that risk… to make sure we do have the spaces available for the prisoners”.

Pointing to the swift response to the riots, the PM added: “I think the response of the criminal justice to the recent disorders has been a major reason that the disorders have subsided for the time being.”

Prosecutors have been trying to fast-track cases of people accused of involvement in the recent riots in parts of the UK, with over 1,000 arrests and 400 charges made so far and lengthy sentences handed down to those found guilty.

The disorder erupted following the spread of misinformation online after the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport.

The Ministry of Justice said that in taking “decisive action to tackle violent thuggery on our streets”, the UK’s longstanding capacity issues in prisons, which it said had been operating at critical levels for the last several years, had been exacerbated.

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Operation Early Dawn will be put in place in the North East and Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, and Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire regions.

Downing Street said the plans could be triggered and deactivated several times over the next few weeks as needed.

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The move has concerned prison bosses and legal experts.

Tom Franklin, chief executive of the Magistrates’ Association, said the measures would lead to delays in defendants appearing in court.

Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, said while the most serious offenders would still end up in court and be guaranteed a prison cell, less serious offenders would either spend longer in police cells or be bailed.

However, he clarified that this would not mean that some people who would normally go to jail would avoid it.

Nick Emmerson, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, said that reactivating Operation Early Dawn would impact victims, defendants, and lawyers, and that sustained investment is needed in the criminal justice system “to avoid it collapsing completely”.

Operation Early Dawn was triggered by the Conservative government in May in a bid to tackle overcrowding in jails.

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Last month, the Ministry of Justice said violence and self-harm in prison had risen to “unacceptable” levels as overcrowding pushed jails to the “point of collapse”.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans to cut the proportion of the sentence inmates must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%.

The temporary move – which does not apply to those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse or some violent offences – is expected to result in 5,500 offenders being released in September and October.