Claim: Prison escapes under the Labour government were almost ten times higher than under the Conservatives.
Fact-check: The number of prison escapes has been falling since the 1990s - Full Fact
Verdict: this figure is correct, based on official data for england and wales, but doesn't tell the whole story. the number of escapes fell sharply during labour's time in office, and was higher still under john major's conservative government. the figure also only includes escapes from prison rather than escapes during transit. when all escapes are taken into account, there were around five times as many under labour.
Organisation: Full Fact
Author: Hannah Smith;Tony Thompson
Date published: 2023-09-18T00:00:00