David Lammy is under intense pressure over the prison releases scandal (Image: PA)
David Lammy has been accused of a “dereliction of duty” as fury mounts over the fugitive migrant scandal.
The under-fire Justice Secretary, who was told Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was wrongly freed from HMP Wandsworth on Tuesday night, “spent the next morning going out shopping”, Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick claimed.
A major manhunt is continuing for Kaddour-Cherif as ministers on Thursday morning as ministers confirmed they have ordered an emergency meeting with prison governors. A second search is underway by Surrey Police after William Smith was also released from the same prison.
But Labour’s handling of the crisis has prompted widespread fury, with Mr Lammy under fire for repeatedly refusing to say if there had been more mistakes during an extraordinary row in the House of Commons.
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Prison service chiefs knew of growing scandal
Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), said there are an average of 22 prison releases in error every month.
He told BBC Breakfast: “The leaders of this service have known about this for over 12 months, but only now it’s in the spotlight. Are they doing something to remedy it?
“The POA have asked for a royal commission, because we realise that the entire criminal justice system at this moment in time is in complete meltdown.
“It’s not just prisons. It’s probation, it’s the court, it’s the police. And we want a royal commission to discover not just what’s gone wrong, but more importantly put it right.”
David Lammy ‘wasn’t out on Oxford Street’
Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones defended David Lammy after he told the Commons he was shopping for a new suit prior to Prime Minister’s Questions.
Asked whether the Justice Secretary should have been out shopping on Wednesday morning, Ms Davies-Jones told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “He wasn’t out on Oxford Street shopping for a new suit.”
“He was preparing for Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions. He was preparing to stand in for the Prime Minister, the first ever black person to do so,” she added.
Further pressed on the issue, Ms Davies-Jones said: “He cracked a joke because his poppy had fallen off this suit, which he also addressed during the Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to get into the weeds of if he was shopping or not in the morning.”
Ms Davies-Jones also said a review led by Dame Lynne Owens in the wake of last month’s blunder which saw Epping hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu accidentally released will report back “in the next few weeks”.
Labour blames the Tories for prison scandals
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”.
The Ministry of Justice defended Mr Lammy’s actions, and pinned the blame on the crisis facing prisons.
A spokesman said: “The crisis in the prison system this Government inherited is such that basic information about individual cases can take unacceptably long to reach ministers.
“On entering the House, facts were still emerging about the case and the DPM (Deputy Prime Minister) had not been accurately informed of key details including the offender’s immigration status.”
Prison governors called in for crisis talks
Prison governors have been summoned for crisis talks as a manhunt continues for two criminals released by mistake, including a migrant sex offender.
Police are trying to track down Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth on October 29.
They are also searching for another inmate, Billy Smith, 35, accidentally released from the same south-west London prison on Monday.
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.
She told the BBC: “We are deploying tech experts to try and help our brilliant men and women who work in our prisons, because they are working with reams and reams of paper in the 21st century, which is totally unacceptable.
“We are convening an urgent meeting of the governors of the prisons to try and figure out exactly what is going on on the ground, because these, again, are the men and women dealing with this day in day out.”
David Lammy for going suit shopping amid prison crisis
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme “he needs to get a grip” of the crisis engulfing the prison service.
He said: “This is a complete and utter shambles.
“The second convicted sex offender illegal migrant in two weeks has been released accidentally from one of our prisons despite the fact that the Justice Secretary, after the first incident, said he was putting in place the most robust checks to ensure this never happens again.
“It took six days for the prison service to even become aware that this had happened and inform the Metropolitan Police, who are now a week behind in the manhunt, then the Justice Secretary is informed about this on Tuesday night.
“He didn’t come clean. He spent the next morning, we’re told, going out shopping for a suit rather than taking charge of his department.
“He then comes to Parliament and doesn’t answer five straight questions about this.
“I think it is a disgrace. It’s a total dereliction of duty. He now needs to put in place the checks that are necessary.
“The very serious point here is that the public are being endangered yet again. This man must be found, deported and the prison service must ensure this stops happening.”
