The crisis engulfing Britain’s justice system gets worse “every time” David Lammy intervenes, Robert Jenrick blasted. The Shadow Justice Secretary said his Labour rival is “completely out of his depth” as Mr Lammy faced mounting fury over prisoners being let out by mistake.

Mr Jenrick said the Government’s early release scheme was partly behind the scandalous blunders. The under-fire Justice Secretary allegedly spent the morning suit shopping hours after discovering Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif had been mistakenly released, Mr Jenrick claimed. A major manhunt was continuing for Kaddour-Cherif as justice chiefs held crisis talks with prison governors about the “explosion in accidental prisoner releases”.

He claimed he found out about the bungled release on “Wednesday morning”, when aides had previously suggested the Justice Secretary found out on Tuesday.

And Mr Lammy sparked even more confusion when he suggested stronger security checks on releases had been introduced after a mistake led to Kaddour-Cherif and fraudster William Smith being mistakenly let out of HMP Wandsworth.

The Algerian sex offender was let out on October 29 and Smith on November 3, when the Justice Secretary’s “immediate” checks were brought in on October 27.

Sources have subsequently claimed the error itself was made when an email was not uploaded from the courts saying he should be remanded into custody for a second offence.

But Mr Jenrick told the Daily Express: “How can the public have confidence in David Lammy when he doesn’t answer basic questions and gets the facts wrong? He has no idea how many prisoners have been accidentally released or where they are. He’s completely out of his depth.

“In the last year, the number of prisoners accidentally released has more than doubled.

“As the former chief inspector of prisoners has said, that’s been caused in part by Labour’s early release programme. This is a fiasco entirely of Labour’s making.

“Every time Calamity Lammy intervenes he makes things worse.”

Former chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick said the rise in wrongly released prisoners “seems to be related” to the introduction of the early release scheme, creating confusion for prison officers.

Denying that Mr Lammy was out suit shopping on Wednesday morning, a source said “he found out about that release in error overnight”, adding “he bought the suit in his free time on Monday.”

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said there has been “an explosion in accidental prisoner releases” as she branded Mr Lammy’s performance at Prime Minister’s Questions “embarrassing”.

Speaking on a visit to JCB Academy, the Tory leader said: “We know that mistakes happen from time to time. What we have seen now is an explosion in accidental prisoner releases, many of them foreign criminals, many of them sex offenders. This should not be happening.

“We know that there will always be times when mistakes occur, but the scale at which it is happening is causing real worry, and what we saw yesterday with David Lammy unable to answer very simple questions was an embarrassment.

“He’s going to have certainly a lot more questions to answer once Parliament is back sitting on Tuesday.”

Asked whether the Deputy Prime Minister misled the House, Mrs Badenoch replied: “It’s quite clear that he had answers which he refused to give. I think that all of that is going to come out in the wash. I think that it was a very embarrassing session for him deputising for the Prime Minister.”

Kaddour-Cherif’s mistaken release came just days after stronger security checks were put in place in prisons following Epping sex attack migrant Hadush Kebatu’s mistaken release from HMP Chelmsford.

The Ethiopian migrant jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman was accidentally let out instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre last month. He was later traced and deported.

A staggering 262 prisoners were released in error in the year to March 2025 – a 128% increase on 115 in the previous 12 months.

Pressed on whether Mr Lammy, who is also the Justice Secretary, should resign, she said: “Let’s find out exactly what he knew, and when, and why he refused to answer a very, very simple question.”

Speaking on a visit to HMP Gartree in Leicestershire, the Deputy Prime Minister told reporters: “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.

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

He added: “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.

“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 judgement I took. I think it’s the right judgement.”

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

“Part of the challenge for David Lammy is he may be able to point to some of the difficulties he inherited, but he’s in charge now, and his management of the situation over the last 24-36 hours doesn’t really command the confidence that ideally we’d all like to see in the criminal justice system,” said Lord Gove.

“We’re now 15, 16 months in, and there will be an expectation that the current Justice Secretary will be bearing down on the system in order to ensure that we don’t have situations like this.”

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said prison chiefs were being summoned for a meeting on Thursday and a team of digital experts had been tasked with overhauling the “archaic” paper-based system of prisoner records.

Mr Lammy rejected calls from Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to return to the Commons and give a statement on the error, as aides believed it would be “career suicide”.