4 Reasons The Accidental Prisoner Release Is Particularly Humiliating For Labour

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy is under fire after it was revealed that further prisoners have been released even since the Hadash Kebatu debacle.Ministers will have winced when it was revealed on Wednesday that another prisoner has been mistakenly released from a London prison in just the last week.A 24-year-old Algerian, Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, was released from Wandsworth last Wednesday, even though he was still meant to be serving time for overstaying his visa.Deputy prime minister David Lammy has since said he was “absolutely outraged and appalled” by the news, and insisted his “officials have been workign through the night to take him back to prison.But this news was particularly humiliating for the government because of the way the public found out about the error, how deputy prime minister David Lammy handled it and what happened else just at the end of October.1. The timing could not be much worseAs if the accidental release of the prisoner – and the ensuing manhunt – was not enough to embarrass the government, the news comes shortly after the nation outraged when a migrant sex offender was set free.Ethiopian Hadush Kebatu was released on October 24 when he was meant to be serving a sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while living in an asylum hotel in Epping.He was re-arrested two days later, and deported to Ethiopia – although it later emerged that he had been paid£500 to leave after threatening it disrupt the flight.Still, the government insisted it was going to crack down on such errors and reform the prison system – a promise which now looks rather thin on the ground after this latest saga.2. David Lammy’s lacklustre response at PMQsLammy was standing in for Keir Starmer at this week’s PMQs while the prime minister flies to Brazil for a climate summit.The deputy PM was repeatedly asked by Tory frontbencher James Cartlidge if there had been any other asylum seekers accidentally released since Kebatu.Lammy, who is also the justice secretary, dodged the question at every opportunity.As soon as PMQs was over, Cartlidge made a point of order to reveal that the Tories were aware of Kaddour-Cherif’s accidental release – but Lammy, again, did not comment.The government has since blamed Cartlidge for asking about the release of asylum seekers in particular, even though Kaddour-Cherif is not an asylum seeker.But Lammy is also under fire for refusing to return to the Commons to offer a statement after all the details of the latest release were revealed.The Times has reported that Labour aides advised ministers it would be “career suicide” to return to the Commons afterwards.3. Who knew what first?Lammy’s behaviour in the Commons suggested he was not aware of any further accidental releases when he was standing at the dispatch box.It’s since been revealed he did know about the incident beforehand, having been briefed about it on Tuesday night.He even had a statement to go if the news broke during PMQs.A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) later defended Lammy.They 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.”The government has also suggested it would have disrupted a live police investigation to mention it.But, according to The Mail and The Times, Scotland Yard would have had no issue with Lammy confirming the release.Lammy is now facing accusations of misleading MPs over the incident.4. What is the MoJ doing?Lammy vowed to implement the “strongest release checks to ever be in place” after the Kebatu incident.Victims minister Alex Davies-Jones also insisted this morning that the government had “convened an urgent meeting today with the governors of prisons” to help modernise the system.She told Times Radio: “It’s not going to be fixed by politicians and policy experts in Whitehall.”She also deflected further blame by pointing out that the Conservatives mistakenly released 17 prisoners a month.“This is sadly a symptom of the system that we currently have,” she insisted. “We do not have enough prison places. We do not have the capability within the prison service because of a paper based system.“It is archaic. It isn’t efficient in any way.”Related...Pressure Mounts On David Lammy Over Prisoner Release Row'A Shambles Of A Government': David Lammy Under Fire After Another Prisoner Accidentally ReleasedDavid Lammy Says Reform UK MP's 'Racist' Take On TV Ads 'Belong In The Dark Ages'

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