Campaigners hailed a major victory yesterday after the High Court ruled that Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s controversial restrictions on prison inmates receiving books from friends and family were unlawful.

Mr Justice Collins’s decision was a victory for Barbara Gordon-Jones, 56, a convicted prisoner serving an indefinite sentence at Send prison near Woking, Surrey.

She challenged the section of the new Prison Service Instruction (PSI) which she said: “imposes substantial restrictions on the ability of prisoners to receive, or have for their use, books.”