PM says he shares public’s anger but claims there would have been ‘paralysis’ if government had not acted

Daniel Dowling-Brooks celebrates being released outside HM Prison Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Beaming prisoners were greeted with hugs and kisses as they stepped out of the metal gates of HMP Manchester and into the arms of waiting friends and family after being freed under the government’s early release scheme.

By lunchtime on Tuesday, 14 prisoners had been released from the prison, known locally as Strangeways, with several confirming they had been let go early. Two said they had been serving time for drugs offences.

Several cars waited for hours parked on the double yellow lines outside the jail; the smell of cannabis wafting from a parked black Audi.

As one man came out, a group of nine women and children rushed to meet him, hugging him just outside the steel doors before the group walked off together. Later, another woman jumped into a man’s arms as he left the prison.

One former inmate, beaming as he stepped out of the gates and met by waiting friends, said he had been released from his sentence seven months early.

Another man said he had also been freed early after serving five years for “crime”.

Juggling four black holdalls filled with possessions, he shouted: “It’s corrupt. They beat people up. It’s corrupt and abusive. There’s no mental health.” He was then driven away by a waiting friend.

But a man who had earlier stepped into a waiting car, confirming he had been released early, said with a wry smile: “It’s not that bad.”

About 1,100 inmates were due to be freed on Tuesday as part of the government’s policy to free up prison space.

Outside HMP Swaleside in Kent, Daniel Dowling-Brooks, 29, said: “Big up Keir Starmer” as he was celebrating with his friends, mother and sister who picked him up in a convoy of a white Bentley and black Mercedes G-wagon.

He told reporters he had served seven years for kidnap and grievous bodily harm of someone who owed money to his friend, and had been released seven weeks’ early.

He said he regrets his crime, and planned to spend more time with his two children and his friends.

He said the first thing he would do is “go to McDonald’s, go to my hostel and follow all the rules”.

“I feel good, man,” he added. “I feel happy.”

Outside the same prison, a man was reunited with his children, who ran to hug him, while another prisoner was also welcomed with an embrace as he was picked up in a black Rolls-Royce by a group of men in matching hoodies.

The releases came as Starmer said he “shares the public’s anger” at scenes of criminals celebrating their early release outside prisons.

His official spokesperson said: “The prime minister shares the public’s anger at these scenes and thinks it is shocking that any government should ever inherit the crisis that this government has when it comes to our prisons.

“But just to be clear, there was no choice not to act. If we had not acted, we would have faced a complete paralysis of the system.

“Courts unable to send offenders to prison, police unable to make arrests and unchecked criminality on our streets, so the government clearly could not allow this to happen.”