Michael Howard told Andrew Neil…

“I’m not in favour of sending everyone to prison – of course not – far from it. The argument that has arisen is that Ken for, goodness knows what reason, has sought to challenge this link between the number of people in prison and the amount of crime and the facts are totally stacked against him. He suggested in a speech he made last week that it was more to do with growing prosperity that crime had fallen. The day after he said that the crime figures came out and showed that, during the worst recession since the 1930s, they’d fallen a further 9% which, I’m afraid, made him look rather foolish.”