The Prime Minister has called on officials to speed up deportations of foreign national offenders

Andy Burnham has admitted he "pushed the early prison release scheme to the limits" as the Prime Minister revealed a three-point plan to "fix the prison crisis once and for all".

Last night, Mr Burnham blocked grooming gang rapists from upcoming changes to prison sentences as part of a push to protect the public from dangerous criminals.

He also announced rapists will face tougher community supervision and a new GPS monitoring system.

The changes mean rape and child sexual offences will be added to the exclusions that were already in place for 18,000 offenders, including those who have been found by a court to be the most dangerous or anyone serving a life sentence.

But the move did not go far enough for critics after it was revealed two men involved in the 2018 killing of police officer Andrew Harper were still likely to be up for early release.

Now, the Labour leader admitted that he had hoped he could "go even further" in the face of the ongoing crisis engulfing prisons across England and Wales.

He said: "I know there will be concerns about who will still be released early for other offences. I have pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do.

"I know I can look people in the eye and say to them there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing within months."

The Prime Minister said "such an outcome would expose the public to enormous risk", inhibiting the police and courts, leaving Britain's entire justice system to "grind to a halt".

As a result, he announced a new package of support for victims who "must be placed at the heart of the justice system".

"This will be backed by £10million in new funding to provide trauma-informed contacts for victims, alongside a new national helpline," the Makerfield added.

The Prime Minister also set out a three-point plan to overcome the ongoing prison crisis which has posed an ongoing issue for the Government.

BRITAIN'S PRISON CRISIS - READ MORE:

Part of the enforced agenda involves calling on his new Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, to set out other "more palatable" methods to ease pressure on the system.

He said: "First, I have asked him to review the indefinite sentences handed out between 2005 and 2012, called Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP).

"This has left many hundreds of people in prison since they were young but without any prospect of release despite having already served very long sentences.

"Second, I have asked for the early release of more women prisoners to be considered, and to look at converting more of the women’s prison estate to hold male prisoners, given the lower risk they generally pose.

"Third, I have asked officials to consider faster returns of foreign national offenders to their country of origin."

Subsequently, the pressure to ease the crisis rests both on Mr Norris, who became Lord Chancellor in Mr Burnham's new Cabinet, and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

In the first few days of the Prime Minister's reshuffled top team, Ms Mahmood was caught laughing with Wes Streeting about the very crisis that now partly rests on her shoulders.

Senior Labour ministers could heard roaring with laughter throughout the exchange, both of whom were chastised by their new boss the following day.