EMERGENCY plans to avoid prison overcrowding were activated in the north of England today as more far-right rioters were being sentenced for their part in last month’s racist attacks.

Operation Early Dawn is a long-standing plan which allows defendants to be held in police cells and not summoned to a magistrates’ court until a space in prison is available.

The measure is placed in north-east England and Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire regions.