'Make no mistake, Sir Keir Starmer is the most left-wing Prime Minister this country has ever had' - Philip Davies

It is clear that Starmer doesn't really believe in sending habitual criminals to prison. When he came into office, one of his first acts was to arrange the early release of thousands of prisoners, because - it was claimed - the prisons were full.

He might have got away with that spin if Yvette Cooper over the weekend hadn't said that anyone involved in rioting would be sent to prison and there were plenty of prison places in order to ensure that happened.

As it happens, I very much agree that anyone involved in rioting should be sent to prison and I very much hope the courts - as in 2011 - give exemplary sentences to the mindless idiots who are going around smashing up shops and local communities.

However, you can't have it both ways. Either there are plenty of prison places or there aren't.

We know what Starmer really thinks of sending criminals to prison by his extraordinary appointment of James Timpson as Prisons Minister.

I served in Parliament with James' brother Ed, and I am sure everyone applauds the work the Timpsons have done over many years to bring up disadvantaged children and give former prisoners a second chance with a job.

However, on criminal justice issues, James Timpson is not just a philanthropist. He is actually a dangerous extremist.

He said that around two-thirds of criminals in prison, shouldn't be there. What an extraordinary thing for a Prisons Minister to say.

He actually believes that around 60,000 criminals in prison should actually be out on the streets, and I repeat - he is now the Prisons Minister in this Labour government.

It is extraordinary. It is actually extremely difficult to be sent to prison in the UK. Courts bend over backwards to find a reason to not send people to prison. You have to be either a very persistent offender or a very serious offender to have any chance at all of being jailed by the courts.

Indeed in response to a Parliamentary question I asked a few years ago, it emerged that if you appeared in court with over 100 previous convictions behind you, you were still statistically more likely to be not sent to prison than imprisoned.

I wonder which specific prisoners James Timpson believes should be out on the streets and not properly punished for their crimes.

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James Timpson was Chairman of the Prison Reform Trust, whose stated aim is to see fewer criminals sent to prison. And yet this is the person who Keir Starmer decided - from everyone in the country - to make the Prisons Minister and put him in the House of Lords to be able to do the job.

Conservative MPs should time and time again ask Starmer in the House of Commons if he agrees with his Prisons Minister that two-thirds of prisoners should not be in jail.

One can only presume that he does or otherwise why did he appoint him?

Sir Keir Starmer has made a truly terrible start as Prime Minister, not least through his betrayal of pensioners over the Winter Fuel Allowance and ditching the forthcoming cap on care costs.

But his liberal left-wing views on crime and sentencing are the political gift which will catapult the Conservatives back into office at the next general election if they relentlessly poke this bruise.

At the very least they will get James Timpson sacked as Prisons Minister when Starmer is eventually told by Tony Blair that his uber-liberal views on crime and punishment are political suicide.