SHADOW justice secretary Steve Reed said Labour would give prison officers the professional status and respect the job deserves at the Prison Officers Association conference today.

But the union’s general secretary Steve Gillan said members wanted clear manifesto commitments on restoring the right to strike and lowering the retirement age.

Mr Reed slammed 13 years of Tory failure of the criminal justice system, including cuts to policing budgets, court closures and “the fact that barely two in 100 reported rapes leads to a trial.