Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, has said that the Tories are to blame for the fact that the government needed today to release another cohort of prisoners early, saying the prisons crisis was “the greatest disgrace of the last Conservative government”. (See 5.05pm.) She used the comment as she made a statement to MPs confirming that David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary, will lead a sentencing review for the government. Mahmood also announced further measures to reduce the jail population. (See 2.15pm and 2.16pm.) Potentially the review could lead to a liberalisation of sentencing laws, but Mahmood told MPs that some sentences could get longer, and that “in some ways, punishment outside a prison can be even more restrictive than prison”. (See 1.57pm.) The UK economy will grow faster than previously thought this year, according to an upgraded outlook by the International Monetary Fund in a boost to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, ahead of her first budget next week. Rachel Reeves is facing calls to introduce a “child lock” to protect spending on child-related benefits in the autumn budget, a move campaigners say would dramatically reduce the number of children in poverty. A leading Uyghur activist has accused the Labour government of “falling behind” its allies in failing to stand up to China, after ministers backtracked on plans to push for formal recognition of the country’s treatment of the minority group as genocide. Kemi Badenoch has criticised Robert Jenrick, her rival for the Tory leadership, for focusing too much on policy. Yesterday Jenrick said it was “disrespectful” for her not to have policies. Today, in an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson for his Political Thinking podcast, Badenoch said Jenrick’s approach was flawed. She explained: He doesn’t know where he’s going to be standing in four years time. So he uses the word disrespectful. I would not use a word like that about any of the candidates who have have stood … If this was a general election, yes, it would be wrong to be standing with no policies. This is not a general election. And if you’re going to solve a problem, you need to make sure that you know what the question you’re being asked is. He thinks the question that is being asked is, what are the right policies to win a general election? I think the question being asked, is why should we trust the Conservative party?