Suella Braverman issues call to arms as she rallies rebel Tories ahead of crunch vote

Taking to X, Mrs Braverman said: “I appreciate the pressures facing the prison system right now. However, I have serious concerns about the Sentencing Bill which suspends short sentences. This measure will mean that thousands of criminals who would have otherwise spent some time in jail will now not do so.

“It is likely that many will re-offend, committing more crime, increasing the burden on police & the risk to public safety. The types of crimes that the short sentence ban applies to include sexual offences, criminal damage, public order, burglary, robbery & drug offences.

“Prison works. It is a deterrent, it takes criminals off our streets and is justice for their victims. This bill will severely undermine confidence in our criminal justice system. The solution to this problem is to build more prisons, not let criminals off the hook.”

Mrs Braverman is expected to go into detail on how the Prime Minister reneged on an agreement they made when he appointed her as Home Secretary to crackdown on legal and illegal immigration.

The row over sentencing reform comes as Mr Sunak’s Government tries to stave off a Tory civil war over his emergency legislation to get the Rwanda deportation flights off the ground.

MPs on the right of the party are threatening to call for a vote of confidence in his leadership if he fails to meet their demands on taking out the legal force of the Refugee Convention, European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and other treaties as well as guarantee the sovereignty of parliament.

But MPs on the left of his party in the One Nation group are threatening to rebel if he agrees to meet those demands.