Tony Blair has said he "very much regrets" the government's move to grant early release to up to 25,000 prisoners to ease overcrowding in Britain's jails.

Speaking at his penultimate prime minister's questions session Mr Blair admitted the government had "long hoped" to avoid the situation where inmates convicted of non-violent or sexual offences will be released 18 days early.

Lord Falconer, the justice secretary, announced the new policy to the House of Lords yesterday as the prison population rose to 81,016.

An interview the Lord Chancellor gave to Sky News last month, where he appeared to categorically rule out granting early release to some offenders, was seized upon by Conservative party leader David Cameron in Westminster today.

The leader of the opposition also quizzed the prime minister on why the government failed to heed a warning from the Home Office itself in 2002 that the country's prisons would be unable to cope with overcrowding in the near future.

Mr Cameron asked: "Why did this government so comprehensively fail to act to this warning?" and went on to accuse the prime minister of presiding over an "abject failure to deliver".

In response Mr Blair insisted that the early release scheme would be a "temporary measure while new prisons were being built".

"I regret having to do so but we have to do it," the prime minister added, citing the 25 per cent increase in overall sentencing and new indeterminate sentences as reasons for the unprecedented number of inmates.

Reacting to yesterday's announcement from Lord Falconer, the Conservatives branded the plans as "disgraceful", while the Liberal Democrats likened the early release scheme to "the policy of the madhouse".

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