Housing Secretary Steve Reed came under fire during a tense GB News interview with presenters Stephen Dixon and Ellie Costello over mistaken prisoner releases.
The row came as it emerged earlier this week that two inmates were accidentally freed from HMP Wandsworth in London within the space of a week, although one criminal has now handed himself in.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, an Algerian sex offender, is still being hunted by police, but William 'Billy' Smith has returned to his cell after a four-day manhunt.
Speaking on Britain’s News Channel, Stephen said: "If you're taking responsibility for it, and if it's all the previous Government's fault, why then has there, on average, over the last four or five years, been about 60 improper releases a year?
Steve Reed fumed at the GB News presenter
|GB NEWS
"Up until the year ending March 2025, the vast majority of the time you were in charge, it went up to 262 over that year."
The Housing Secretary countered: “Well, you’re not going to pretend to me that these problems only began in July last year…”
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Ellie interjected, pointing out the increase was 128 per cent.
Mr Reed immediately struck back: "No, no, you can’t just interrupt me when I’m giving an answer.
"800 people who should have been banged up walked free under the previous Government. They knew.
"The problem was that we had a paper based system. They refused to invest in digitising it.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was released by mistake from HMP Wandsworth
| MET POLICE"We recognised the problem. We take responsibility for the problem. We will invest where they didn't and that will keep the people of this country safe.
"But I can't manage a work magic away overnight. The failures of the Conservative Party to properly steward our criminal justice system, we take responsibility.
"We will fix it. If it could be done overnight, it would be done overnight.
"But this didn't come out of nowhere. They broke the entire criminal justice system."
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The errors come only weeks after Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian sex offender who entered the UK via small boat, was accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex.
He was serving a 12-month sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman.
Kebatu was meant to be transferred to an immigration detention centre for deportation, but was wrongly freed due to a "human error".
He has since been deported back to the east African nation.
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