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A Labour minister has not denied reports there are plans for prisoners in the UK to serve their sentences at prisons in Estonia.
Dame Angela Eagle, a minister in the Home Office, said the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is “considering anything” to alleviate prison overcrowding.
She did not comment directly when asked on Sky News whether the government was considering renting cells for British prisoners in Estonia as it was “not directly my ministerial responsibility”.
Dame Angela said: “The last government closed loads of prison places and didn’t replace any of them, so I think that colleagues in the MoJ will be considering anything that they can to alleviate the problem.
“What we cannot have is people who are convicted of perhaps violent or serious crimes not being able to be in jail.”
The possible scheme comes as the prison population has reached a new record high. Official figures showed there were 88,521 people behind bars on Friday, 171 more than the previous record set at the end of last week.
