How Labour’s jail strategy could come unstuck

Let’s talk cobblers. The Prime Minister has responded to the jail space crisis by ennobling the nation’s shoe mender-in-chief James Timpson and making him minister for prisons, probation and parole. This is a bold move but not one without risk.

Timpson has made his fortune out of the ubiquitous key cutting and watch repair outlets that sprout from many big supermarkets. He’s less well known for a passionate interest in penal affairs. He became the first household name retailer to employ carefully screened prison leavers in his shops and they have returned his trust by becoming some of his best workers. I’ve never had a bad visit to a Timpsons; this says much about the business his father and he have built on can-do socially aware capitalism.

But fixing prisons, while rebuilding public confidence in a shattered prisons and probation agency, is going to require a different approach and a lot of hard-nosed realpolitik.