TORY leader Kemi Badenoch issued an unusual apology today conceding that the last Conservative government was somewhat to blame for the crisis over prison places.

“On the crisis in prison places, this has been a long time coming. We did some things, it wasn’t enough, and I’m sorry about that,” she told a press conference.

The admission came as she sought to attack Labour over its scheme to release prisoners early, a result of the pressure on places.

Saying that she could not “fix the past, but what I can do is come up with solutions for now, and for tomorrow,” Ms Badenoch urged the government to rent prison places abroad, deport foreign prisoners and accelerate the building of more prisons.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has already suspended the early release programme, and a party spokesperson said: “The Tories completely failed to expand prison capacity in government, meaning judges had to stop jailing offenders.”

Labour was “building thousands of additional jail places on top of the 3,000 we’ve already delivered,” the spokesperson boasted.