England's top judge has been slapped down after renewing his call for shorter prison sentences and arguing that murderers are being jailed for too long.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips argued in a speech that mandatory life sentences for murderers meant prisons risked becoming "full of geriatric lifers" and suggested they were compounding the prison overcrowding crisis.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The Lord Chief Justice is entitled to his view and has expressed it. The Home Secretary believes that murderers and other dangerous offenders should be kept in prison as long as is necessary to protect the public."