BORIS Johnson continues his prime ministerial spending spree with a £100 million prison security upgrade, which will see airport-style security, including X-ray scanners and metal detectors, introduced into jails south of the border.

The move is aimed at underscoring the Conservative Party’s claim to be the party of law and order; in the last few days, the Prime Minister has ordered an urgent review of sentencing policy which could see violent and sexual offenders serving more of their sentences behind bars, and promised an extra 10,000 new prison places and 20,000 additional police officers together with an expansion of stop-and-search powers in England and Wales.

The measures will do little to disabuse people of the notion that Mr Johnson is preparing to go to the country post-Brexit on October 31.

The latest law and order announcements coupled with extra money for hospital and school upgrades running into billions of pounds mean the Scottish Government is likely to see a windfall running into hundreds of thousands of pounds in coming years as the increased spending is subject to the Barnett Formula.

Plus, an extra £2.1 billion on no-deal preparations – on top of the £4.2bn already announced – has been announced and there is a pledge to have full-fibre broadband across the UK by 2033, which would run into tens of billions of pounds.

As part of the Government’s “crackdown on crime behind bars,” the new £100m expenditure will target all types of crime in prison “from drug smugglers, fuelling a rise in violence and self-harm, to gang kingpins continuing to run their operations from jail, to offenders seeking to contact their victims in the outside world”.

Airport-style security will be put into prisons across England and Wales to clamp down on the drugs, weapons and mobile phones that increase the risk to prison officers and hinder rehabilitation.

“We cannot allow our prisons to become factories for making bad people worse,” declared Mr Johnson.

“We will stop the drugs, weapons and the mobile phones coming in, so we can safeguard victims, protect staff, cut violence and make our prisons properly equipped to reform and rehabilitate.

“The public must see justice being done, punishment being served and feel protected,” he added.

On Monday, the PM hosted a Downing St round-table meeting of senior figures in the criminal justice system, including Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, where he insisted young people must be prevented from getting on "the conveyor-belt to crime".

However, his criminal justice reforms were denounced as "unevidenced electioneering" by the Reform think-tank.

And his latest spending announcement on prison security was dismissed by political opponents.

Wera Hobhouse for the Liberal Democrats said it was “yet another hollow move by Boris Johnson to seem tough on crime but yet again fails to tackle the causes of crime,” while Richard Burgon for Labour claimed the new measures “fall woefully short of what is needed to make our prisons safe”.

Accusing the PM of “timidly tinkering at the edges,” the Shadow Justice Secretary said: "Reckless Tory cuts to staffing and budgets unleashed unprecedented levels of violence in our prisons.”

He added: “Boris Johnson should set out a detailed plan and provide proper funding to ensure that our prisons have the staffing and resources needed to focus on rehabilitation and reducing re-offending.”