Lammy fumbles question on freed asylum seekers moments before police admit second foreign inmate is on the run
David Lammy refused to confirm whether any other criminal asylum seekers have been “accidentally let out of prison” - just moments before police revealed another convicted sex offender is on the loose.
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The Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister lost his cool during a grilling in the Commons after he was asked five times whether any further blunders of this nature have occurred since the three-day manhunt for Hadush Kebatu last month.
The migrant was jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, while living in an asylum hotel, but was mistakenly set free by prison staff.
Mr Lammy refused to answer the question and instead took aim at the Tories, telling his opposite number to "get a grip" during the heated session of Prime Ministers' Questions.
It came just moments before police revealed another manhunt is underway for a second foreign criminal who has been at large for a week after he, too, was wrongly freed from prison.
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James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, put to Mr Lammy: “He’s the Justice Secretary.
“He’s responsible for the justice system, he needs to take responsibility and I’m asking him a straight question, and I’m going to repeat it once more for the avoidance of doubt, because he didn’t answer it twice.
“Can he reassure the house that, since Kabatu was released, no other asylum-seeking offender has been accidentally let out of prison?”
Mr Lammy launched a panicked attack on the opposition with his flustered response as he attempted to swerve the question.
“Get a grip man. I know I’m the Justice Secretary. That’s why I’m at the dispatch box,” he said.
He added that Kebatu’s accidental release is already being investigated and hot back that there were mistaken releases that happened under Mr Cartlidge’s watch when he was justice minister, but which he has never apologised for.
He went on to accuse the Conservatives for leaving the prisons’ system “in a mess”, adding that he as Justice Secretary, has tightened prison security in the wake of the blunder.
“Of course, we know that there have been spikes since 2021 under his watch. When did he come to this House and apologise?”
But the grilling came as police admitted a 24-year-old Algerian man is on the loose after being released in error in a humiliating development for the Justice Secretary.
The Algerian man, 24, was accidentally released from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday last week. The Metropolitan Police was only informed at lunchtime on Tuesday this week.
The man’s name has not been released but he is understood to have been previously convicted of sex offences.A Met Police spokesperson said: “Shortly after 13:00hrs on Tuesday, 4 November, the Met was informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, 29 October.
Mr Lammy later said in a statement: “I am absolutely outraged and appalled by the mistaken release of a foreign criminal wanted by the police.
"The Metropolitan Police is leading an urgent manhunt, and my officials have been working through the night to take him back to prison.
“Victims deserve better and the public deserve answers. That is why I have already brought in the strongest checks ever to clamp down on such failures and ordered an independent investigation, led by Dame Lynne Owens to uncover what went wrong and address the rise in accidental releases which has persisted for too long.
“This latest incident exposes deeper flaws across the failing criminal justice system we inherited. Dame Lynne Owens’ investigation will leave no stone unturned to identify these issues, so we can fix them, improve safeguards and ensure the public is properly protected.”