David Lammy ‘makes prisons scandal worse every time he intervenes’, blast critics | Politics | News

The crisis engulfing Britain’s justice system has worsened “every time” David Lammy has intervened, Robert Jenrick has said. The shadow Justice Secretary said his Labor rival had “completely lost his mind” as Mr Lammy faced growing anger over the mistaken release of prisoners.

Mr Jenrick said the government’s early release plan was partly behind the scandalous blunders. Mr Jenrick claimed the under-fire Justice Secretary had allegedly spent the morning clothes shopping after learning Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif had been released by mistake. A massive manhunt for Kaddour-Cherif was under way as justice chiefs held crisis talks with prison governors about the “explosion in accidental prisoner releases”.

And the Deputy Prime Minister defended dodging questions in the House of Commons, insisting he “didn’t have all the details”.

He claimed he learned of his clumsy release “on Wednesday morning” when aides had previously suggested the Justice Minister learned of it on Tuesday.

And Mr Lammy added to the confusion by suggesting stronger security controls on releases had been put in place following a bug that led to Kaddour-Cherif and fraudster William Smith being accidentally released from HMP Wandsworth.

The Algerian sex offender was released on 29 October, Smith on 3 November, and the Minister of Justice’s “urgent” checks were delivered on 27 October.

Sources later claimed that the mistake was made because an email from the court stating that he should be detained for a second offense was not loaded.

But Mr Jenrick told the Daily Express: “How can the public trust David Lammy when he does not answer basic questions and gets the facts wrong? He has no idea how many prisoners have been accidentally released or where they are. He is completely out of his mind.”

“The number of prisoners accidentally released last year more than doubled.

“As the chief inspector of ex-prisoners said, this was partly due to Labour’s early release programme. This is entirely a debacle of Labour’s making.

“Calamity Lammy makes things worse every time she intervenes.”

Nick Hardwick, the former chief inspector of prisons, said the rise in the number of prisoners being wrongfully released “appears to be related” to the early release scheme, which has created confusion for prison officers.

A source, who denied that Mr Lammy had gone suit shopping on Wednesday morning, said he “found out about this eviction by mistake overnight” and added that he “bought the suit in his spare time on Monday”.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch described Mr Lammy’s performance at Prime Minister’s Questions as “disgraceful” and said there had been “an explosion of accidental prisoner releases”.

Speaking during a visit to the JCB Academy, the Conservative Party leader said: “We know that mistakes happen from time to time. What we are seeing now is an explosion in the accidental release of prisoners, many of whom are foreign criminals and many of whom are sex offenders. This should not happen.”

“We know mistakes will always occur, but the extent to which they occur is truly cause for concern and what we saw yesterday with David Lammy failing to answer very simple questions was disgraceful.

“He will certainly have many more questions to answer when Parliament reconvenes on Tuesday.”

Asked whether the Deputy Prime Minister had misled the House, Ms Badenoch said: “It is quite clear that he has answers that he refuses to give. I think all of that will come out at once. So the sitting for him to deputize the Prime Minister was a very embarrassing session.”

Kaddour-Cherif’s mistaken release comes just days after stronger security controls were introduced in prisons following the mistaken release of Epping sex attack migrant Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford.

An Ethiopian immigrant was jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, and a woman was mistakenly released instead of being sent to an immigration detention center last month. He was later tracked down and deported.

A staggering 262 prisoners were mistakenly released by March 2025; a 128% increase from 115 inmates in the previous 12 months.

Asked whether Mr Lammy, who is also Justice Minister, would resign, he said: “Let’s find out exactly what he knows, when and why he refuses to answer a very, very simple question.”

Speaking during a visit to HMP Gartree in Leicestershire, the Deputy Prime Minister told reporters: “This week we learned that the release that caused concern actually occurred a few weeks before I introduced these checks, following the release of Kebatu and the other prisoner. “It was not actually a prison error, it was a court error.

“But the truth is, I’ve been in office for two months. The rate of releases for error is too high. It needs to come down. That’s why I asked Dame Lynne Owens to look at this.”

“I first learned about this on Wednesday morning. I was both getting information from the officials at the ministry and preparing for the Prime Minister’s Questions.

“I did not have all the details in the post. This detail was actually revealed later, just after we finished Prime Minister’s Questions. “I judged it was important to have full details when updating the House and the country on serious matters like this.

“I didn’t have all the details. And the danger is that you end up misleading the House of Representatives and the public. So I made that decision. I think it was the right decision.”

Former justice secretary Lord Gove said Mr Lammy “doesn’t really command the confidence” of someone capable of solving justice crises.

“Part of the challenge that David Lammy faces is that he can point to some of the challenges that he has inherited, but he is now in charge and his management of the situation over the last 24-36 hours does not really deliver the trust that ideally we would all like to see in the criminal justice system,” Lord Gove said.

“We’ve got 15-16 months now and there will be an expectation that the current Minister of Justice will put pressure on the system to ensure we don’t end up in situations like this.”

Justice Secretary Alex Davies-Jones said prison chiefs were called to a meeting on Thursday and a team of digital experts was tasked with overhauling the “archaic” paper-based prisoner registration system.

Mr Lammy rejected calls from Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to return to the House of Commons and make a statement about the mistake because his aides believed it would be “career suicide”.