RORY STEWART “bottled it” as prisons minister, a leading trade unionist said today at the prison officers’ conference.

The Tory MP jumped ship from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) earlier this month and now heads the overseas aid department.

Mr Stewart made the move as the clock counted down on his promise to improve conditions at 10 prisons across the country by August or face the sack.

Prison Officers’ Association (POA) national chair Mark Fairhurst said the ex-prisons minister had “bottled it and managed to crawl from under Theresa’s Brexit propaganda and gain a promotion.”

The Tory politician’s time at the MoJ was blighted by high levels of violence, drug use and self-harm across the prison estate.

Mr Fairhurst told delegates that there are now 28 assaults a day on prison staff.

This made Britain’s jails the “most hostile and violent workplace in western Europe,” he warned.

Delegates watched video evidence of horrific injuries sustained by officers at work, including battered eye sockets and head wounds.

The POA chief’s comments came as attacks on prison staff continue to make headlines.

Barely a fortnight before Mr Stewart walked out, a young HMP Nottingham prison guard had his throat slashed by an inmate with a razor.

As the Star has reported, there were multiple riots at prisons throughout Mr Stewart’s tenure, including at Bedford and Long Lartin, as well as a deluge of alarming reports from the custody watchdog.

Mr Fairhurst told conference that he hopes new prisons minister Robert Buckland QC “lasts longer than the previous five.”

He also demanded the retirement age for prison officers be reinstated to 60. It currently stands at 68.

Private prisons No, Pava Yes

THE POA chair vowed to continue campaigning for all prisons to be brought back into the public sector.

Mr Fairhurst welcomed the renationalisation of HMP Birmingham, which had been chaotically run by outsourcing giant G4S.

It was “absolutely shameful” that new jails to be built would be funded by the public sector before private companies would swoop in to run them for profit, he said.

He also took on critics of prison officers being given incapacitation spray Pava to protect themselves at work.

“We’ve got the likes of the human rights brigade and the Howard League [for Penal Reform] saying we don’t deserve Pava,” Mr Fairhurst thundered.

“Well, I say to the Howard League and the human rights brigade, we’ve got human rights as well — shame on you!”

“It’s a right not a privilege to be safe at work.”