A justice minister has defended David Lammy after he admitted he took time to buy a new suit prior to his first appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions.
News of an Algerian convicted sex offender being mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth broke as the Deputy Prime Minister stood in for Sir Keir Starmer at the weekly session in the Commons.
Reports suggest Mr Lammy, who is also the Justice Secretary, was briefed on Brahim Kaddour-Cherif’s release on Tuesday night, and he had prepared to address it on Wednesday, but did not.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick criticised Mr Lammy for “going out shopping for a suit, rather than taking charge of his department”.
Minister Alex Davies-Jones argued it is not appropriate to “get into the weeds” of whether the Justice Secretary was out shopping.
Mr Lammy had told MPs on Wednesday he “bought a new suit this morning because my godmother said she would be watching” by way of addressing criticism over his lack of poppy ahead of Remembrance Sunday.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he said he “was in the department, both learning from officials, but also preparing for Prime Minister’s Questions” on Wednesday morning, where he was told of the release.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Davies-Jones said: “He wasn’t out on Oxford Street shopping for a new suit.
“He was preparing for Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions. He was preparing to stand in for the Prime Minister, the first ever black person to do so.”
Further pressed on the issue, she added: “He cracked a joke because his poppy had fallen off this suit, which he also addressed during the Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to get into the weeds of if he was shopping or not in the morning.”
Police are searching for Kaddour-Cherif, 24, who was released on October 29, and Billy Smith, 35, who was also accidentally freed from the same south-west London prison on Monday.
It comes after Epping hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu was wrongly released from HMP Chelmsford on October 24.
Following Kebatu’s release, the Government promised the “strongest checks ever”, and launched an independent investigation led by Dame Lynne Owens.
Mr Jenrick told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The second convicted sex offender, illegal migrant in two weeks has been released accidentally from one of our prisons, despite the fact that the Justice Secretary after the first incident came to Parliament and said that he was putting in place the most robust checks to ensure this never happened again.
“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 him.
“Then the Justice Secretary is informed about this on Tuesday night, 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.”
During a visit to HMP Gartree, Mr Lammy told reporters: “I first found out about this on Wednesday morning. I was in the department, both learning from officials, but also preparing for Prime Minister’s Questions.
“At the despatch box, I did not have all of the detail. That detail was actually released just later, after I had finished at Prime Minister’s Questions.
“I took the judgement that it is important when updating the House and the country about serious matters like this, that you have all of the detail.”
