'Classic calamity!' David Lammy torn apart by top Tory for 'slinging mud' over second mistaken release of foreign criminal

In a fiery Prime Minister's Questions this afternoon, Conservative MP James Cartlidge asked David Lammy five times whether any asylum seeker offenders have been released from prison, however the Justice Secretary refused to answer.

Taking to social media, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch blasted Labour's "shambles of a Government", criticising Mr Lammy for "losing his temper".

Reacting to the second wrongful release, Ms Lopez told GB News: "Well, it's classic Calamity Lammy, isn't it?

"Your viewers will have picked up on the fact that he refused very clearly to answer the question, I think five times."

She added: "He's put a lot of personal capital into solving this issue. All he had to answer was whether he was confident that in the last couple of weeks there hadn't been any further releases, and he wasn't able to answer.

"And instead of actually dealing with that directly, he chose to sling mud and got very agitated in the chair."

Pressed by host Gloria de Piero on the Conservative record for prison spaces, Ms Lopez claimed their Government "had a plan" to build more prisons, but it "fell apart" with the Covid pandemic.

She explained: "We had a major prison building program underway, and unfortunately, during the pandemic, that got hit.

"And so while we would have been delivering 20,000 extra prison places by now, unfortunately, that did get delayed and that is a challenge."

Hitting out at Labour's inability to "get prisons and borders under control", she concluded: "But Labour's solution on this was early release, and they have not been able to get a hold on the prison system at the same time as they're not getting a hold on the borders, and this combination of factors is leading to absolute chaos here.

"The Deputy Prime Minister placed a lot of political capital into getting this sorted, he briefs out that he hit the roof, that this wouldn't happen again, and he was not able to assure people that there are not serious prisoners placing people in danger anymore."

The Deputy Prime Minister David 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.

"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."

In a statement, a Met Police spokesman said: "Shortly after 13:00hrs on Tuesday, 4 November, the Met was informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, 29 October.

"The prisoner is a 24-year-old Algerian man. Officers are carrying out urgent enquiries in an effort to locate him and return him to custody."

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