Labour was accused of taking the side of criminals on Sunday as ministers press ahead with the abolition of most short-term prison sentences.

Under radical reforms to be put before Parliament next month that have been branded soft justice, tens of thousands of shoplifters, thugs and even sex offenders will be spared jail.

The Sentencing Bill will urge judges not to lock anyone up for less than 12 months except in exceptional circumstances such as domestic abuse cases.

It will also extend the maximum length of suspended terms from two to three years.

Even serious criminals who are put behind bars will be able to earn early release under a new incentive scheme based on the system in Texas.

They will be let out sooner for good behaviour with some only having to serve a third of the jail time handed down in court, in an attempt to avoid another prison overcrowding crisis.

Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf said on Sunday: ‘Labour are firmly on the side of those who break our laws.’

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick warned: ‘By scrapping short prison sentences Starmer is set to unleash a crimewave on Britain. This is a gift to criminals who will soon be free to offend with total impunity.’

He went on: ‘There are now record numbers of individuals in our prisons awaiting trial and record numbers of foreign criminals clogging up our jails. Those numbers have risen under Labour’s watch. 

'If Starmer brought forward emergency measures to deport foreign criminals and get courts sitting longer we would support him, but instead he’s determined to see fewer criminals go to jail and risk the safety of the public.’

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Shoplifters, sex offenders and drug dealers will now avoid prison under Labour’s soft justice plans.

‘Shoplifting has already soared under Labour and this will make it even worse. It’s madness.

‘Prison works. Serial and serious offenders belong in one place: inside.’

Many of the proposals in the bill, which will be introduced to the Commons when MPs return from summer recess in September, were proposed by former Tory Justice Secretary David Gauke in a review commissioned by Labour.

But as well as sending fewer criminals to jail, Labour wants to toughen up community punishments.

Courts in England and Wales will be given greater powers for conditions to be imposed on offenders allowed to walk free.

They could face limits on driving, travel bans and ‘restriction zones’ confining them to specific areas.

Criminals could even find themselves barred from going to pubs, concerts or sporting events under the proposals.

Currently football bans can only be imposed for specific crimes such as offences committed inside a stadium on a match day, but the law will be changed to allow the punishments to be imposed for any offence in any circumstances.

Those who are jailed and supervised by the Probation Service on release will face similar restrictions and a mandatory drug-testing regime.

Any offenders who break the restrictions will be brought back to court and former inmates could be sent back to prison.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: ‘When criminals break society’s rules, they must be punished.

‘Those serving their sentences in the community must have their freedom restricted there too.

‘These new punishments should remind all offenders that, under this Government, crime does not pay.

‘Rightly, the public expect the Government to do everything in its power to keep Britain safe, and that’s what we’re doing.’