Ann Widdecombe said she once proposed taking over a disused holiday camp to respond to prison overcrowding, as she urged the Government to provide more temporary spaces.

Reform UK’s immigration and justice spokesperson, who previously served as a Tory prisons minister in the 1990s, made the remarks as she criticised Labour for reducing the amount of time prisoners must spend in jail before they are automatically released – from 50% of their sentence to 40%.

The move, which does not apply to those convicted of sex offences, terrorism, domestic abuse or some violent offences, is expected to result in 5,500 offenders being released in September and October.

Speaking at Reform UK’s party conference in Birmingham, Ms Widdecombe said all governments find there is pressure on prison spaces and they begin to run out.

She said: “At that point you have a choice: you either let the prisoners out or you provide more prison spaces.

“And I’m not talking about the longer-term plans for new prisons, I mean that if you see a situation coming down the path at you when you’re going to run out of prison spaces then you take temporary measures to supply those new places; it isn’t rocket science.

“And I did. I brought in a prison ship from the United States.”

She added: “I also used disused Portakabins from decommissioned Norwegian oil rigs and put them down in the grounds of the lower security prisons; more spaces.

“I even proposed, but the general election got in the way, to take over a disused holiday camp.

“Now all you have to do, because the accommodation’s already there, you put up a secure perimeter and lo, you’ve got a low-security prison.

“Of course you do take away the cinema and the swimming pool before you do that.

“But, in short, it can be done. Just as the control of illegal immigration can be done.”

Ms Widdecombe earlier said people who arrive “unlawfully” in the UK on small boats should be housed “in secure reception centres”.

She said of the party’s approach: “We are not going to house the people who come in on those boats in hotels, at the cost of billions a day to the British taxpayer.

“We will instead house them in secure reception centres.

“And then the message goes out if you arrive unlawfully in this country from a perfectly safe country then you will be refused, you will be dealt with quickly and you will be sent back.”