Ministry of Justice issues bizarre new statement in David Lammy prison row

David Lammy's team bizarrely blamed the Tories for his bungled handling of the fugitive migrant sex offender scandal.

The Ministry of Justice on Wednesday claimed the "crisis in the prison system this Government inherited is such that basic information" can be difficult to get hold of.

It comes after the Deputy Prime Minister refused five times to say whether an asylum seeker had been mistakenly released from prison.

A major manhunt was continuing on Wednesday night after it emerged Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a 24-year-old Algerian, was wrongly freed a week ago.

The "shocking" blunder comes just days after a sex attack asylum seeker went free and sparked warnings that the fugitive is a "danger to the public".

Kaddour-Cherif had been living in the UK illegally after overstaying his visitor visa, the Daily Express understands. He is not an asylum seeker.

A MoJ spokesperson said late on Wednesday night: "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 had not been accurately informed of key details including the offender's immigration status. No media story about the individual case was yet in the public domain and it was and remains subject to a live police investigation.

"The DPM was asked questions about the release of an asylum seeker. As was confirmed after PMQs by the Home Office, the individual was not an asylum seeker.

"The DPM waited until after PMQs and further facts had emerged before making a statement."

He was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously been convicted for indecent exposure.

The Algerian was set free from HMP Wandsworth in London on October 29, but the mistake was only reported to the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday.

It comes after migrant Hadush Kebatu was wrongly released from HMP Chelmsford on October 24.

Meanwhile Surrey Police are hunting another inmate, Billy Smith, 35, who was also accidentally released from HMP Wandsworth on Monday.

He was sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences on the day he was accidentally freed.

A spokesperson for the Met said: "Shortly after 1pm on Tuesday, November 4, the Met was informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, October 29.

"The prisoner is a 24-year-old Algerian man.

"Officers are carrying out urgent inquiries in an effort to locate him and return him to custody."

It is not clear why the prison service did not alert police for six days, nor why Mr Lammy, the Justice Secretary, refused to answer five times during Prime Minister's Questions, where he was standing in for Sir Keir Starmer - even though he knew beforehand.

Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Justice Secretary, said: "This is another shambles under Calamity Lammy's watch.

"Accidental releases of prisoners have more than doubled under this Government, and David Lammy doesn't have a clue what's going on.

"The British people are being put in danger time and again due to the Government's sheer incompetence."

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "It is shocking that once again the Labour government has mistakenly allowed a foreign criminal to be released from prison.

"The Algerian offender reportedly has previous sex attack convictions and is clearly a danger to the public."

Kaddour-Cherif arrived in the UK on a visitors visa in 2019 and is in the initial stages of being deported.

The blunder is the latest controversy to hit HMP Wandsworth, the same prison where former soldier Daniel Khalife mounted his high-profile escape from and where female prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu was filmed having sex with an inmate.

It also marks another humiliating blow to the Government, which is still scrambling to recover from the fallout of Kebatu being mistakenly freed from prison.

The Ethiopian, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, was freed in error on October 24 before he was arrested in Finsbury Park, north London, three days later.

Kebatu, whose offences sparked protests outside the asylum seeker hotel he was staying in and around the country, was deported to his home country last Tuesday.

He was paid £500 in taxpayers' money to leave after threatening to disrupt his removal.

Just two days before the Algerian convict was released, David Lammy, the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, had vowed to increase checks on prisoners being released following the nationwide manhunt for Kebatu.

It's understood he knew about the second wrongly released prisoner but refused to answer five times whether any more asylum seekers had been mistakenly freed since Kebatu during the Deputy Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge, who was standing in for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch in the Commons, repeatedly asked Mr Lammy about any other asylum seeker prisoners being released.

Mr Cartlidge then said in a point of order at the end of the session, he was reading reports that the Algerian inmate was on the run.

On social media afterwards, he asked another question: "Now that we know the answer to my question... Can you tell me when you knew and when you were planning to tell the rest of us?"

It's understood the Tories found out about the blunder 15 minutes before the start of deputy PMQs.

Downing Street said it was first aware of the blunder when it was announced at the end of PMQs.

Afterwards, Mr Lammy released a statement saying he was "absolutely outraged and appalled" by the error, and blamed the Tories for the system Labour inherited.

Mr Lammy said: "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."

He added: "Victims deserve better, and the public deserves 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."

On Monday last week - October 27 - in the wake of the Kebatu scandal, Mr Lammy told MPs the Prison Service had "taken steps to make these processes more robust".

Mr Lammy added: "These are the strongest release checks that have ever been in place. They will apply to every release from custody and are effective immediately."

Kaddour-Cherif had been serving time for a break-in at the royal Society of Literature in Somerset House on the Strand in September 2023.

He also had a previous sexual offence conviction for exposing himself to a woman in March 2024 in Lloyd Park in Walthamstow, east London - not far from his address in Tower Hamlets.

Kaddour-Cherif had previously been charged with a string of other alleged offences, including possession of a knife, handling stolen goods and another count of burglary.

According to Government figures published in July, 262 prisoners were released in error in the year to March 2025 - a 128% increase on 115 in the previous 12 months.