Cameron accuses Brown over prisoner releases

David Cameron and Gordon Brown have clashed over the early release of prisoners and law and order.

The Conservative leader pressed Brown during prime minister's questions on reoffending by those let out of jail early to alleviate overcrowding.

Pointing out that a year ago he had asked why prisoners were being released early against the advice of probation officers Cameron said: "The prime minister promised me that it would be looked into but it is still going on."

And he asked why Brown had failed to stop the early release of dangerous prisoners.

Brown replied: "Less than one per cent of prisoners who have been released within 18 days of their due date of their release have been guilty of any further crimes.

"It is bad when any incident happens but he has to accept that it is a very low proportion of those released.

"We have also instructed prisons that the police should be notified in response to any information they have received that a prisoner poses a risk of domestic violence."

Cameron said that even the head of the probation officers had argued nothing had been done to improve the situation in the past year and that there had been many cases where domestic abusers had been released early and "beaten up their partners".

Brown said that the number of prison places had increased and was going to continue to rise.

The prime minister also pointed out more widely that under Labour there were more police and community support officers and that crime was down by 30 per cent and "it would have helped if the Opposition had voted for some of our measures."

Cameron said: "No-one will forget that he was the chancellor who didn't build the prisons that has landed us in this mess.

"It absolutely no consolation to the victims of domestic violence that he reads out his list of completely irrelevant figures.

"A year ago he told me in this House that he would act. Surely people will conclude he's failed in his basic duty which is keeping people safe."

Brown accused the Conservatives of "talking tough but acting soft" on crime.

"We have acted against anti-social behaviour, we've acted against domestic violence, and we have acted so that evidence from DNA can be constructed, we have brought in CCTV and most of these proposals have been opposed by the Opposition.

"They talk tough on law and order and act soft, they talk tough on terrorism and act soft, they talk tough on planning laws and last week voted against them.

"On all the major issues where difficult long-term decisions are made they duck the issues," the prime minister concluded.