# Tories pledge 50,000 prison places funded by aid cuts

> Kemi Badenoch vows the biggest prison expansion since Queen Victoria, slashing overseas aid to £1 billion annually to pay for it.
- Title: Tories pledge 50,000 prison places funded by aid cuts
- Summary: Kemi Badenoch vows the biggest prison expansion since Queen Victoria, slashing overseas aid to £1 billion annually to pay for it. The Conservatives pledge to…
- Keywords: kemi badenoch, conservatives, prison expansion, overseas aid cuts, early release schemes, labour government, criminal justice, politics, news, Tories, pledge, 000
- Source: The Independent — https://independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservatives-tories-prison-places-badenoch-b3060483.html
- Published: 2026-10-02T22:14:34+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: kemi badenoch, conservatives, prison expansion, overseas aid cuts, early release schemes, labour government, criminal justice, politics, news
## Badenoch pledges fifty thousand new cells
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch vows to build fifty thousand extra prison spaces by cutting the foreign aid budget to one billion pounds annually to end early release of offenders.
## Timeline and scale of expansion
The Conservatives state most new places would be created within a single parliament, with the full quota achieved inside seven years. Badenoch calls it the biggest prison increase since Queen Victoria.

> the biggest prison increase since Queen Victoria
## Conservative record falls far short
During fourteen years in government, the Conservatives added a net figure of roughly five hundred prison places, with fourteen thousand one hundred forty two spaces built against thirteen thousand six hundred sixty lost through closures and deterioration.
## Badenoch acknowledges past failure
Kemi Badenoch accepts that the capacity delivered by the previous Conservative government was nowhere near enough, but says the party now has a plan to solve the issue.

> nowhere near enough
## Funding comes from multiple cuts
International development spending would be slashed to one billion pounds a year. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport budget would be cut by one billion pounds and Cabinet Office communications spending reduced by five hundred million pounds.
## Labour attacks Conservative credibility
Labour chairwoman Bridget Phillipson says the Conservatives are taking the public for fools, arguing they left the criminal justice system at breaking point and their proposals are not credible.

> taking the public for fools
## Early release continues under Labour
More than seventy thousand prisoners have been released since twenty twenty four under Labour's scheme. Following Prime Minister Andy Burnham's exemptions for certain offences, the number due to be freed early over the next year has been cut from around six thousand to around five thousand.
## Badenoch attacks Labour's approach
Kemi Badenoch accuses Labour of papering over the cracks and letting dangerous offenders out early instead of building prison spaces. She says a violent criminal does not become less dangerous just because the government has run out of prison cells.

> A violent criminal doesn't become less dangerous just because the Government has run out of prison cells
## Reform UK dismisses Conservative plan
Reform UK's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf says the Conservatives built just four hundred prison places over fourteen years in government, calling their pledge to build one hundred twenty five times more now pure fantasy.

> pure fantasy
## Key takeaway

The Conservatives pledge to build fifty thousand new prison places within seven years by cutting foreign aid from current levels to one billion pounds a year.