David Lammy has been challenged to reveal key facts about the prison release gaffes – and warned he should resign if he fails to answer.
The Deputy Prime Minister has been asked to provide a full picture of how many criminals have been wrongly freed, and how many are still on the run.
It comes as Mr Lammy, who is also Justice Secretary, prepares to appear before MPs for the first time since his disastrous appearance at PMQs last week.
He was roundly criticised for failing to admit on Wednesday that another foreign offender had been let out by mistake.
Mr Lammy’s stance prompted mutterings – even within Labour ranks – about whether he was up to the job.
Now Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has taken the unusual step of revealing in advance the questions he will ask Mr Lammy during a Commons session tomorrow.
In an open letter, tweeted by Mr Jenrick this afternoon, he wrote: ‘I have written to you, submitted Parliamentary questions and asked you in the House of Commons.
‘You have failed to give any answers.
Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, filling in for the Prime Minister at last week’s PMQs, failed to mention another foreign criminal had been let out of jail by mistake
‘Tomorrow, in Parliament, I will once again ask basic questions that any competent Lord Chancellor would know the answers to.
‘How many prisoners have been accidentally released since 1st April 2025?
‘How many prisoners accidentally released are still at large?
‘Who has been accidentally released and how many are violent or sexual offenders?’
Hadush Kebatu (pictured) was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre
Mr Jenrick added: ‘This is a matter of the utmost seriousness.
‘If you refuse again to provide this information despite my multiple requests, and my forewarning, the only remaining conclusion is that you are incapable of telling the truth.
‘In which case, you must make way for someone who will.’
It comes after Epping migrant hotel resident and sex offender Hadush Kebatu was let out of HMP Chelmsford, on October 24 and arrested in north London after a two-day manhunt.
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
As last week’s PMQs – led by Mr Lammy in the absence of Sir Keir Starmer – Mr Lammy was asked whether there had been further releases in error.
He failed to mention that Algerian criminal Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, who was serving time for trespass with intent to steal and had a previous conviction for indecent exposure, had been let out by mistake.
Mr Lammy later insisted he had been ‘right’ not to disclose the case at the time because he was ‘not equipped with all the detail’.
‘I took the judgment that it is important when updating the House and the country about serious matters like this, that you have all of the details,’ he said on Thursday.
‘I was not equipped with all of the detail, and the danger is that you end up misleading the House and the general public.
‘So that is the judgment I took. I think it’s the right judgment.’
Police were not informed Kaddour-Cherif had been released for six days. He was detained by police on Friday.
It also emerged that fraudster William ‘Billy’ Smith, 35, had been freed from HMP Wandsworth on the day he was due to begin a 45-month sentence due to a clerical error by court staff. He later handed himself in.
Mr Jenrick’s letter said the recent releases were ‘just the tip of the iceberg’.
‘The British people deserve to know the truth about the scale of the security crisis in our prisons,’ he wrote.
Mr Lammy is due to appear before MPs for a routine question-and-answer session in the Commons tomorrow, which is likely to be dominated by the recent jail gaffes.
Ministry of Justice data shows there were 262 prisoners freed in error in the year to March, an increase of 128 per cent on the previous 12 months.
Mr Jenrick has been pressing Mr Lammy to publish the number of accidental releases since the beginning of April, and a breakdown of those cases.
The data would indicate whether the problem has continued to worsen under Labour.
Last week the ex-chief inspector of prisons said Labour’s early jail release scheme had ‘caused confusion’ in the prison system and contributed to the surge in lags being freed by mistake.
Nick Hardwick said increasing numbers of errors ‘seems to be related’ to the Government’s programme which has so far let more than 38,000 criminals out of jail early.
The early release scheme – introduced last year by then justice secretary Shabana Mahmood – allows most offenders to be freed after serve 40 per cent of the sentence handed down by the courts, rather than the previous 50 per cent.
‘That caused confusion in the bits of the prison service that are supposed to calculate how long someone is supposed to spend in prison,’ Mr Hardwick told the BBC.
Prison leaders also revealed jail computer systems are so ‘antiquated’ officers are forced to use a ‘pen and paper to calculate and recalculate prison sentences’.
