A number of mistaken prisoner releases may really be an “opportunity” for David Lammy, Harriet Harman has stated.
It emerged on Wednesday that two prisoners had been wrongly free of HMP Wandsworth final week. It follows the high-profile launch of migrant intercourse offender Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford.
Baroness Harman stated this has “shone a spotlight on a systemic problem which needs to be sorted out”.
Relatively than turn out to be a “ding dong” between Labour and the Tories, she stated: “I think ironically it’s a bit of an opportunity for him [Lammy] to actually be able to roll up his sleeves and insist the department gets the resources and the focus it needs to sort out this problem, which is not a new problem.”
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2:46
What’s incorrect with our prisons?
She added that figures displaying 262 prisoners had been mistakenly launched within the 12 months to March 2025 is “five a week, more or less being let out early” and “we don’t even know that is the full extent”.
Mr Lammy, who can be the deputy prime minister, is underneath fireplace over his dealing with of the saga.
He stood in for Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs on Wednesday when he refused to reply whether or not any extra asylum seekers had been wrongly launched since Kebatu, an Ethiopian nationwide, who was later deported.
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1:20
Lammy says he did not need to ‘mislead’ the Commons or public
As PMQs was ending, the story broke that Algerian intercourse offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif had been launched in error. It has since emerged that Mr Lammy was made conscious of this in a single day on Tuesday.
He has defended not revealing that he knew in regards to the incident, saying he didn’t have the total particulars and didn’t need to mislead the general public.
Mr Lammy can be being criticised as following Kebatu’s mistaken launch, he promised on 27 October that stronger jail checks can be launched instantly.
Picture:
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif and William Smith.
Pic: Met Police/Surrey Police
However Kaddour-Cherif was launched in error two days later, on 29 October, whereas one other prisoner, William “Billy” Smith, was mistakenly launched on Monday.
Smith handed himself in on Thursday, whereas Kaddour-Cherif continues to be on the run.
