David Lammy has been told to “get a grip” on the prisons crisis as the justice secretary continues to come under pressure after two prisoners were mistakenly released from a London jail.
The shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBC that he has no confidence in Mr Lammy, and said that the deputy prime minister’s handling of questions about the matter at Prime Minister’s Questions this week was “a disgrace” and “a total dereliction of duty”.
Police are working to track down Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth just over a week ago on 29 October. They are also searching for another inmate, Billy Smith, 35, who was accidentally released from the same prison in southwest London on Monday (3 November).
Mr Lammy is under fire after he failed to address the matter when standing in for Sir Keir Starmer in the Commons on Wednesday, when he repeatedly failed to tell MPs whether any more asylum seekers had been mistakenly released from jail since the case of Epping hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu.
Kaddour-Cherif is not an asylum seeker.
Mr Jenrick told Radio 4’s Today programme: “It took six days for the prison service supposedly to even become aware that this had happened and inform the Metropolitan Police, who are now a week behind in the manhunt to find [Kaddour-Cherif].
“Then the justice secretary is informed about this on Tuesday night, [and] didn’t come clean. He spent the next morning, we’re told, going out shopping for a suit rather than taking charge of his department. He then comes to parliament and doesn’t answer five straight questions about this.
“I think it’s a disgrace. It’s a total dereliction of duty.”
The story broke as PMQs was ending, and a comment released on Mr Lammy’s behalf said he was “absolutely outraged” about Kaddour-Cherif’s release.
Mr Lammy is understood to have been briefed about the case on Tuesday night, and The Times reported that he had a statement ready to read out if the news broke, but did not do so in the Commons for fear of pre-empting a statement from the Metropolitan Police.
Speaking on Today, Mr Jenrick continued: “Does anyone today [...] have confidence in David Lammy? I don’t. Does anyone? The justice secretary’s got to get a grip.”
Mr Lammy’s departmental colleague Alex Davies-Jones was sent out on Thursday morning to face questions from the media, telling the BBC that the deputy PM was unavailable due to a longstanding commitment.
Ms Davies-Jones told Sky News she was “totally furious” about the release, and that she shares the “anger and frustration” of the public about the issue.
She told the broadcaster: “Any mistaken release from prison is unacceptable. That’s why we’re trying to get to the bottom of this.” She also said that a “crack team” of tech experts would be brought in to help “digitise” the systems within the prison service.
The Ministry of Justice defended Mr Lammy on Wednesday night, saying in a statement that the “facts were still emerging” while he was addressing the Commons on Wednesday, and that he had “not been accurately informed of key details, including the offender’s immigration status”.
A spokesperson said: “The deputy PM was asked questions about the release of an asylum seeker. As was confirmed after PMQs by the Home Office, the individual was not an asylum seeker. The deputy PM waited until after PMQs and further facts had emerged before making a statement.”
The chair of the justice committee has described the prisoner releases as "extremely concerning" and said the cases point to "a wider justice system at breaking point".
Labour's Andy Slaughter who heads up the cross-party group of MPs, said in a statement: “Reports that two prisoners have been ‘released in error’ from HMP Wandsworth are extremely concerning, especially following the high-profile release from HMP Chelmsford last month.
“Events such as this speak to a wider justice system at breaking point. Evidence taken by the Justice Committee has laid bare a crisis-hit prison system, starved of investment over many years which is facing multi-faceted pressures, including overcrowding and understaffing within a decaying prison estate characterised by chaos and instability."
He said that the committee visited Wandsworth prison as part of their investigation into drugs in prisons, "and found an institution with multiple failings despite the best efforts of its staff".
He added: “While the day to day running of prison security and public safety are paramount, the current spate of releases in error will be repeated until the underlying failures are addressed.”
Kaddour-Cherif was serving a sentence at Wandsworth for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously also been convicted for indecent exposure. He was freed from the prison, which was put into special measures last year, on 29 October, but the mistake was only reported to the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday this week (4 November), the force said.
The Algerian national is understood not to be an asylum seeker, but is in the process of being deported after he overstayed his visa.
Smith, who has links with the Woking area, was freed on Monday, and had been sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences on the same day he was accidentally released.
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