Minister defends David Lammy and says ‘broken system’ to blame for prisoner releases – UK politics live | Politics
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shadow justice secretary, Robert JenrickHe told X that the mistaken release of Epping sex offender Hadush Kebatu was “just the tip of the iceberg”.
Referring to a report in the Telegraph that 90 prisoners may have been released by mistake, Jenrick said: “The accidental release of the Epping sex offender was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Lammy refused to reveal all the facts, but thanks to @telegraph the extent of the chaos has been revealed. Where are these dangerous criminals @davidlammy?!”
One of two prisoners mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth handed himself back in yesterday.
William ‘Billy’ Smith, 35, surrendered to prison in south-west London yesterday.
He was sentenced to 45 months in prison at Croydon crown court on Monday for multiple fraud offenses but was mistakenly released the same day, sparking a three-day manhunt. The video shows the moment he surrendered.
Three inmates have been charged with murder after a child killer was found dead in his cell, PA reports.
The Prison Service confirmed the man was 33-year-old Kyle Bevan. Bevan was jailed for life for the murder of his partner’s two-year-old daughter Lola James in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in 2020.
Bevan was expected to spend at least 28 years behind bars for the brutal murder after he inflicted devastating head injuries on the toddler during a six-hour attack.
West Yorkshire Police said officers were called to HMP Wakefield category at 8.25am on Wednesday.
Mark Fellows, 45, Lee Newell, 56, and David Taylor have been charged with murder, police said. They were taken into custody and will appear at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
The incident took place less than a month after pedophile singer Ian Watkins was stabbed to death in the same prison.
Last night David Lammy posted a video in x He said he was “as shocked as anyone” by the rate at which prison release errors were occurring.
In the video, the justice minister said he was determined to address this issue:
“I have already introduced stronger discharge controls with more direct accountability.
“And I have asked the lady, Lynne Owens, to conduct an independent review to see what steps we can take moving forward.
“I met with prison administrators today to understand that they need more support to stop these mistakes.”
Minister defends Lammy amid crackdown on botched prisoner releases
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of UK politics as questions continue over David Lammy’s handling of the release of an errant prisoner while a sex offender remains at large.
The deputy prime minister and justice minister has been criticized over the release of Algerian Brahim Kaddour-Cherif from Wandsworth prison. Yesterday the deputy prime minister and justice minister said the government had “a mountain to climb” to tackle the prison crisis and insisted he “didn’t have all the details” when questioned in parliament on the issue on Wednesday.
But there is obvious unease among his colleagues; The Times quotes anonymous senior ministers saying he was a “coward” and guilty of “incompetence in rank”.
Keir Starmer backed his deputy at the COP30 summit, saying he was “right” to “set out the facts to the best of his knowledge”. He’s returning from Brazil today.
Meanwhile, Steve Reed dismissed criticism from fellow ministers of Lammy as “anonymous gossip”. The housing secretary told Times Radio:
The problem is that we have a broken system, and when you have a broken system you will see failures. The important thing is to make sure we have a digital system so that no prisoners are released by mistake.
There is no acceptable number [mistaken releases]But the way to fix this is not to gossip about David Lammy in the newspapers, but to do the work and invest in digitizing the system.
David called the prison governors into his office yesterday, I imagine they were feeling quite nervous given what was going on, but he was also making sure they had all the support they needed to carry out the much tighter checks that would be required to make sure any repeats of this were to an absolute minimum.
Stay tuned for all the latest, as well as pre-Budget speculation, as New Labor deputy leader Lucy Powell says Labor must stand by its manifesto pledge not to increase income tax, national insurance or VAT in the face of a challenge that will put pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves. You can read our story here
