Police chiefs refused to pause arrests last night after a Government plan to solve prison overcrowding backfired.
A major row broke out among Britain's most senior officers as Scotland Yard announced that it would 'never agree to pausing any necessary arrests'.
The chairman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, or APCC, also revolted against the advice issued by the National Police Chiefs Council.
The NPCC told forces to consider pausing 'non-priority arrests' and to suspend operations that may trigger 'large numbers of arrests' until there is enough capacity in prisons across England and Wales. It came after ministers triggered emergency measures without warning last week to keep defendants in police cells because jails are running out of space.
Known as Operation Early Dawn, the emergency measures plunged some magistrates' courts into chaos, with bail hearings postponed at the last minute as meetings took place to determine where spaces could be found for suspects remanded in custody.