LABOUR MP Grahame Morris hit out at the Tory government today for failing to table “desperately needed” legislation in last week’s Queen’s Speech to tackle worsening prison violence.

The MP for Easington in County Durham said ministers were not doing enough to protect vulnerable prison officers from assaults at work, despite “nodding their approval” on calls for action during debates in the Commons.

A Prisons Violence Bill proposed by the back-bencher, who has long campaigned for workers in the sector via the justice unions parliamentary group, failed to get on to the statue book before Parliament’s last session ended in April.