Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions – taken by Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy – had a sting in the tail. The exchanges between Lammy and his Conservative counterpart James Cartlidge centred on the accidental release of convicted sex offender, Hadush Kebatu. Lammy was asked whether any other asylum seekers had been accidentally released from prison. Significantly, the Deputy PM repeatedly avoided answering that question, presumably because he knew – as Cartlidge will have done – that news was about to break of another such release. At the very end of PMQs, Cartlidge made a point of order to announce that it had been reported that a manhunt was underway after a 24-year-old Algerian man had been released from HMP Wandsworth in error six days ago.
Lammy can’t blame the Tories for the failure of his own policy
The exchanges before this breaking news saw Cartlidge complain twice that Lammy hadn’t apologised in the Commons for the first release, and Lammy launch into a full attack and rebuttal to try to deal with the criticisms his opposite number was making. When Cartlidge asked: ‘Can he reassure the House that since Kebatu was released, no other asylum seeking offender has been accidentally let out of prison?’
Lammy replied: ‘Well, the House is thankfully quiet, so I’m surprised the honourable gentleman didn’t hear me when I said that of course I apologise for the anxiety caused. But let me just remind him that he was a justice minister that allowed our prisons to get to this state in the first place and it’s now for us to fix the mess that we’ve got into…He knows that early releases began under their watch in 2021.’
This did not answer the question and indeed conflated early release with accidental release. Cartlidge asked the same question about whether any other asylum seeker had been accidentally released from prison, adding: ‘It’s a very specific question for him to answer’. Indeed, it was so specific that it was obvious to anyone listening that Cartlidge was asking it for a specific reason so that he could refer everyone back to the answer a little later. Lammy replied:
‘After his release, I put in place the toughest checks we’ve ever had in the prison system. It is important that Lynne Owens is able to get to the bottom of her work, I suspect there will be more checks and balances we need to do. What we inherited was a complicated system that they set up, letting people out on sly, that’s part of the problem and we are trying to fix it!’
The pair were both rapidly increasing their decibels as the exchanges went on. In a near shout, Cartlidge complained that Lammy is ‘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. He’s here to answer questions. Can he reassure the House that since Kebatu was released, no other asylum seeking offender has been accidentally let out of prison. It’s a clear question: can he give an answer.’
Lammy’s volume went up again. He yelled: ‘Get a grip man! I know I’m the Justice Secretary, that’s why I’m at the despatch box also as Deputy Prime Minister. We know that! I’m not going to pray in aid.’ He then talked again about Dame Lynne Owens and her review of releases in error. He did not answer the question.
So back Cartlidge came for a fourth time with the same question. And back Lammy came with no answer, instead saying: ‘I tell you, I spent 14 years in Opposition and I did a hell of a lot better than he’s just done. I have answered the question.’ Jabbing repeatedly across the despatch box, he listed the ways in which the Tories had failed the justice system. He was right on those points, but, as Cartlidge was saying, the salience of the justice system has only now risen under Labour’s tenure.
For a fifth time, Cartlidge asked the question again, and Lammy started talking about how he was looking forward to being up against Robert Jenrick next time, adding: ‘In 20 years in this House, I have not witnessed a more shameful spectacle frankly than what the party opposite left in our criminal justice system.’
The problem for Lammy though is that, while voters might accept that it will take longer than a year to fix the justice system, the second accidental release appears to have happened after he introduced his own tough new checks to prevent such a thing happening. And he can’t blame the Tories for the failure of his own policy.
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