David Lammy is encountering a Cabinet backlash over his ‘cowardly’ and ‘incompetent’ handling of a mistaken prisoner release.
The Justice Secretary’s unwillingness to respond to questions in the House of Commons about the release of an Algerian national has drawn criticism from other ministers.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was incarcerated at HMP Wandsworth for trespassing with the intent to steal. He was previously found guilty of indecent exposure.
It is known that Kaddour-Cherif, who is currently at large, is being deported since he overstayed his visa and is not an asylum applicant.
During Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Lammy, the Deputy Prime Minister, declined to confirm Kaddour-Cherif’s release.
He has also been criticised for not returning to Parliament later to state the details of Kaddour-Cherif’s mistaken release.
During a round of radio and television appearances on Thursday morning, Alex Davies-Jones, a junior minister in the Ministry of Justice, was left to answer questions on the scandal.
One Cabinet minister told The Times of Mr Lammy’s response to the mistaken prisoner release: ‘It’s cowardly. He should have fronted up and owned it.
‘I still don’t understand why he didn’t confirm it or make a statement in the Commons. He left it to a junior minister to do the broadcast round. The handling is terrible.’
Another Cabinet minister told the newspaper the row had brought into question Mr Lammy’s political ‘judgment’ and his ‘aggressive manner’ in the Commons.
A third minister said: ‘The PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] are deeply unhappy. They think the way he has handled this is awful. Why can’t he just hold his hands up?’
A senior Government source said: ‘It feels less like a contempt [of Parliament] issue, more just rank incompetence and frankly pretty dodgy.’
A manhunt for Kaddour-Cherif is ongoing. But another prisoner, Billy Smith, 35, who was also accidentally released from the same prison on Monday, has handed himself back in.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that he was ‘angry and frustrated’ by ‘intolerable’ wrongful prisoner releases, although he defended Mr Lammy.
On Thursday afternoon, the Justice Secretary made an appearance in front of television cameras to answer questions on the prisoner release controversy.
But Mr Lammy raised additional questions when he said Kaddour-Cherif was mistakenly released before new checks were implemented.
This is despite him telling MPs last Monday that those checks were effective immediately, two days before the wrongful release on October 29.
Whitehall sources later said the Ministry of Justice was investigating evidence that the mistakes that triggered Kaddour-Cherif’s release took place in September.
Mr Lammy continually declined to demonstrate at PMQs on Wednesday, when he was standing in for Sir Keir, whether any more asylum seekers had been mistakenly released since Hadush Kebatu, the now-deported migrant at the heart of protests in Epping, Essex.
He told reporters on Thursday he was ‘not equipped with all the details’ about Kaddour-Cherif’s release when he appeared in the Commons.
‘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,’ Mr Lammy added.
The Justice Secretary had confirmed on October 27 that stronger release checks would come into force immediately, two days before Kaddour-Cherif was released.
He was charged by the Tories with possibly deceiving the public.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: ‘David Lammy has either lied or has absolutely no clue what’s going on in his department.
‘How can the public have confidence in the Justice Secretary when he can’t establish a timeline of events or answer basic questions?’
Housing Secretary Steve Reed on Friday morning dismissed criticism of Mr Lammy from fellow ministers as ‘anonymous tittle tattle’.
He told Times Radio: ‘The problem is we’ve got a broken system, and you are going to see failings when you have a broken system.
‘The key is to make sure we have a digital system so that no prisoner is ever released by mistake.
‘There is not an acceptable number for this, but the way to fix it is not tittle tattle about David Lammy in the newspapers, it’s to get on and do the work and put in the investment that will digitise the system.
‘David has already had the prison governors in his office yesterday, I imagine they felt pretty hauled over the coals given what’s been going on.
‘But he was also making sure that they’re getting all the support they need to carry out the much tougher checks that will be required to make sure that the repeats of this are at an absolute minimum.’
Incompetent and cowardly are descriptions that are far too courteous for this clown. He needs to be sacked immediately.
To be honest, I could think of a few more choice words for not only this fool, but the entire cabinet. I believe it’s time for them to stop sharing a brain cell, and they are all puppets for the elite. We need some fresh meat! Instead of stewing steak, we need sirloin.
Our government may claim that we require a digital system, but we don’t. They just want digital so they can monitor everyone, but you can be sure that those who actually need to be watched won’t be.
We are turning into a communist state without anyone even recognising it. Ultimately, one party will rule over all significant facets of our nation, including the ownership of all industries, enterprises, and property on behalf of the populace.
The objective is to create a society with no private property or social classes, where wealth will be shared equally among citizens, although in practice, these states have frequently been authoritarian and governed by a powerful central government – terrifying, isn’t it?
Folks, the state will own you. It will own our means of production, like factories and land. We will become a classless society. Not even the King can overrule the government because the King must act on the advice of the government, not override it – seems pointless him being here!
What should happen is that we should oust our UK government, but to do that, we would require a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons, and most of them are napping for most of the time.
So, now for the most important question. Who owns England? Behind this simple question lies the country’s oldest and best-kept secret, but now there’s a book by Guy Shrubsole called ‘Who Owns England?: How We Lost Our Land and How to Take It Back.’
We are all pawns in the grand scheme of things, and I guess we will always be, and then the worker ants are just above us – then there’s the elite, you need to watch out for them! Do you want to be the pawn? Because this is the cage they have you ensnared in.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 