FORMER prison officer and Labour MP Sally Jameson was thanked at the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) annual conference today for lobbying the government to authorise the use of pepper spray in youth offender institutes.

Following the Labour MP for Doncaster Central’s address to delegates, POA chairman Mark Fairhurst said: ”I know — you’ll never admit it — that you were influential in the roll out of Pava [spray] in the Youth Custody Service, because you’ve got the ear of the government ministers and secretaries of state in your role.”

Ms Jameson was appointed as parliamentary private secretary to the Ministry of Justice when she became an MP in July.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed off the use of the synthetic form of pepper spray for children as young as 15 across three of the four YOIs in England and Wales last month.

The Howard League for Penal Reform said that it might legally challenge the decision amid fears it would fuel divisions between staff and minors in their care.