SHADOW justice secretary Richard Burgon condemned the chaotic state of the penal system yesterday, warning that the service was on the brink of collapse because of the toxic combination of low staff numbers and prison violence.

Mr Burgon said during a Commons debate that the loss of 6,000 prison officer jobs since 2010 had contributed to the increasing rates of assaults on staff, use of “legal highs,” self-harm and suicide among inmates.

Government plans unveiled last year to recruit around 2,000 officers will not go far enough, he told MPs.

He warned that the “dangerous cocktail of experienced prisoners in prison and experienced prison officers leaving prison” was “not good for safety and that’s not good for the service.”

A series of riots has been reported over recent months with serious disturbances seen at Birmingham, Lewes, Bedford and Moorlands prisons. Mr Burgon continued: “One prison officer told me the situation in our prison service was like a game of Jenga, ‘where it feels like we are on the brink of the final piece being removed and the whole thing coming crashing down around us.’ He did not say that lightly.”

Psychoactive substances such as synthetic cannabis “Spice” have been blamed for much of the violence.

But Mr Burgon said that in Scotland’s prisons — where these drugs are known to be available, but there haven’t been such drastic staff cuts — the violence hasn’t spiralled.

He called for more prison officers and greater efforts to rehabilitate prisoners through better advice given on housing, education and drug-free living.