Shabana Mahmood: The disgraceful treatment of Kate Forbes

It was like a scene from the Blair government: a minister admits inmates are being released before their sentence ends, to free up space. The opposition is furious, saying that ‘never in this country has a government ever been forced to release prisoners over two months early’. But in this instance, the minister is Tory and the opposition comes from Shabana Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood and the shadow justice secretary.

When we meet in The Spectator’s offices, the 43-year-old seems to be channelling her inner Michael Howard. ‘Prisons are overcrowded, we just don’t have enough places,’ she says. ‘This country hasn’t built enough prison places for a long time and certainly not for the last 14 years.’ Labour would remedy this, she says, by building more prisons and locking more people up. ‘If you break our rules, you do have to be punished. Prison has a place.’

But Mahmood is no red Tory. Her last assignment was running Labour’s political campaign machine. By the time she handed the job over to Pat McFadden, the party had a 20-point lead over the Tories. She joked to him that ‘if it all goes well, I’m taking credit because the foundations are all me’.

The former barrister says the Tories should be very concerned about prisons. ‘You could have a big system failure on any day,’ she says. ‘I’m sure Alex Chalk [the Justice Secretary] is losing sleep over it. I’m sure if we win, I’ll be losing sleep over it.’

While she is now prepared to talk, Mahmood has been quiet in recent months. She is the only Muslim shadow cabinet member and was reported to be unhappy about Keir Starmer’s delay in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.