Prison officers should be armed with lethal weapons to crack down on Islamist terrorists, Tories say

Prison officers should be armed with lethal weapons to crack down on Islamist terrorists in jail, the shadow justice secretary has said.

Highly trained teams should also be equipped with tasers, stun grenades and baton rounds to tackle dangerous criminals in high-security jails, Robert Jenrick said.

The plan is taken from a series of recommendations by counter-extremism expert and former prison governor Ian Acheson.

It comes after a prison officer at high-security prison Long Lartin in Worcestershire was stabbed on Friday morning with a weapon Sky News understands was brought in from outside the prison.

It also follows several attacks on prison officers in jails.

In April this year, the Manchester Arena bomb plotter, Hashem Abedi, allegedly assaulted prison staff by throwing hot oil on them and then launching a stabbing attack, injuring three officers.

At Belmarsh prison, Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been accused of throwing boiling water over an officer through the hatch in his cell door earlier this month.

Mr Jenrick said: "Islamist gangs and violent prisoners in our jails are out of control.

It's a national security emergency, but the government is dithering. If they don't act soon, there is a very real risk that a prison officer is kidnapped or murdered in the line of duty, or that a terrorist attack is directed from inside prison."

He said he commissioned Mr Acheson to conduct a rapid review into measures the government could adopt.

The measures include removing all radical Islamist imams working in prisons, immediately rolling out high-collar stab vests to frontline officers, and mandating the quarterly release of data on religious conversions in prison and faith-based incidents.

It also recommended legislating to overturn the De Silva ruling to strip back judicial interference in operational decisions by governors to isolate extremists.

Mr Jenrick added: "We have to stop pussy-footing around Islamist extremists and violent offenders in jails.

"That means arming specialist prison officer teams with tasers and stun grenades, as well as giving them access to lethal weapons in exceptional circumstances.

"If prison governors can't easily keep terrorist influencers and radicalising inmates apart from the mainstream prisoners they target, then we don't control our prisons - they do. We must take back control and restore order by giving officers the powers and protection they need."

Mr Acheson said: "Too often what goes wrong behind the walls of our high security jails passes unnoticed, as does the bravery of the men and women in uniform who deal every day with terrorists and other highly dangerous offenders.

"Robert Jenrick is right - the threat to officer safety is now intolerable and must be met decisively by the government.

"The balance inside too many of our prisons has shifted away from control by the state to mere containment and the price is soaring levels of staff assaults and wrecked rehabilitation. Broken officers can't help fix broken people - or protect the public from violent extremism."

A Ministry of Justice source said: "The government considers the introduction of lethal weapons into prisons would put prison officers at greater risk."

They added: "The last government added just 500 cells to our prison estate, and left our jails in total crisis. In 14 years, they closed 1,600 cells in the high-security estate, staff assaults soared, and experienced officers left in droves. Now the arsonists are pretending to be firefighters.

"This government is cleaning up the mess the last government left behind. We are building new prisons, with 2,400 new cells opened since we took office. And we take a zero-tolerance approach to violence and extremism inside."