David Lammy is facing a Cabinet backlash over his ‘cowardly’ and ‘incompetent’ handling of a mistaken prisoner release.
The Justice Secretary has been blasted by fellow ministers over his refusal to answer questions in the House of Commons about the release of an Algerian national.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif had been serving a sentence at HMP Wandsworth for trespass with intent to steal. He has a past conviction for indecent exposure.
It is understood Kaddour-Cherif, who is still on the run, is not an asylum seeker but is in the process of being deported after he overstayed his visa.
Mr Lammy, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, refused to confirm Kaddour-Cherif had been freed during exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
He has also been criticised for not returning to Parliament later to give a statement on the detail of Kaddour-Cherif’s mistaken release.
Alex Davies-Jones, a junior minister at the Ministry of Justice, was left to be quizzed about the scandal during a round of TV and radio interviews on Thursday morning.
One Cabinet minister told The Times of Mr Lammy’s response to the mistaken prisoner release: ‘It’s cowardly. He should have fronted up and owned it.
‘I still don’t understand why he didn’t confirm it or make a statement in the Commons. He left it to a junior minister to do the broadcast round. The handling is terrible.’
David Lammy is facing a Cabinet backlash over his ‘cowardly’ and ‘incompetent’ handling of a mistaken prisoner release
The Justice Secretary has been blasted by fellow ministers over his refusal to answer questions in the House of Commons about the release of an Algerian national
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif had been serving a sentence at HMP Wandsworth for trespass with intent to steal. He has a past conviction for indecent exposure
Another Cabinet minister told the newspaper the row had brought into question Mr Lammy’s political ‘judgment’ and his ‘aggressive manner’ in the Commons.
A third minister said: ‘The PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] are deeply unhappy. They think the way he has handled this is awful. Why can’t he just hold his hands up?’
A senior Government source said: ‘It feels less like a contempt [of Parliament] issue, more just rank incompetence and frankly pretty dodgy.’
A manhunt for Kaddour-Cherif is ongoing. But another prisoner, Billy Smith, 35, who was also accidentally freed from the same prison on Monday, has handed himself back in.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that he was ‘angry and frustrated’ by ‘intolerable’ wrongful prisoner releases, although he defended Mr Lammy.
The Justice Secretary did appear in front of TV cameras himself on Thursday afternoon to be quizzed about the prisoner release row.
But Mr Lammy raised further questions when he said Kaddour-Cherif was mistakenly released before new checks were implemented.
This is despite him telling MPs last Monday those checks were effective immediately, two days before the wrongful release on October 29.
Whitehall sources later said the Ministry of Justice was investigating evidence that the mistakes that triggered Kaddour-Cherif’s release took place in September.
Mr Lammy repeatedly refused to confirm at PMQs on Wednesday, when he was standing in for Sir Keir, whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since Hadush Kebatu, the now-deported migrant at the heart of protests in Epping, Essex.
He told reporters on Thursday he was ‘not equipped with all the detail’ about Kaddour-Cherif’s release when he appeared in the Commons.
‘We have found out that the release that has caused concern, this week, was actually before I introduced those checks just a few weeks ago following the release of Kebatu, and the other prisoner was a court mistake not, in fact, a prison mistake,’ Mr Lammy added.
The Justice Secretary had confirmed on October 27 that stronger release checks would come into force immediately, two days before Kaddour-Cherif was released.
The Tories accused him of potentially misleading the public.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: ‘David Lammy has either lied or has absolutely no clue what’s going on in his department.
‘How can the public have confidence in the Justice Secretary when he can’t establish a timeline of events or answer basic questions?’
Housing Secretary Steve Reed on Friday morning dismissed criticism of Mr Lammy from fellow ministers as ‘anonymous tittle tattle’.
He told Times Radio: ‘The problem is we’ve got a broken system, and you are going to see failings when you have a broken system.
‘The key is to make sure we have a digital system so that no prisoner is ever released by mistake.
‘There is not an acceptable number for this, but the way to fix it is not tittle tattle about David Lammy in the newspapers, it’s to get on and do the work and put in the investment that will digitise the system.
‘David has already had the prison governors in his office yesterday, I imagine they felt pretty hauled over the coals given what’s been going on.
‘But he was also making sure that they’re getting all the support they need to carry out the much tougher checks that will be required to make sure that the repeats of this are at an absolute minimum.’
