David Lammy has been accused of "rank incompetence" by his fellow Cabinet ministers after a multitude of blunders over mistakenly released prisoners.
The accidental release of a 24-year-old Algerian prisoner, who is on the sex offenders register, from HMP Wandsworth in south London on October 29, was the core of the complaints by Labour ministers.
Mr Lammy, the Justice Secretary, subsequently dismissed a call from Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to return to Parliament after he repeatedly refused to confirm that Brahim Kaddour-Cherif had been freed amid concerns it would be "career suicide".
One Cabinet minister told The Times: "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 this morning. The handling is terrible."
Another minister added: "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."
The Prime Minister stood by Mr Lammy when pressed about it by reporters in Brazil ahead of Cop30.
Sir Keir Starmer said: "Let me just say how angry and frustrated I am that these mistakes have been made in releasing people. They’re intolerable and they shouldn’t be made.
"A lot of it comes from the burden and the strain on the system because of the failures of the last Government. But I recognise it’s our job to step up and to fix this, and we will.
"David Lammy, the Justice Secretary, has convened the governors to talk to them about what more can be done, but we must put the systems in place to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, and we will."
Pressed on whether Mr Lammy was telling the truth on Wednesday or in his latest comments, Sir Keir said: "David Lammy can speak for himself on that.
"And I’m absolutely clear that he’s setting out the facts to the best of his knowledge, and that’s the right thing for him to do."
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Steve Reed defends David Lammy - 'The Justice Secretary has done the right thing'
Steve Reed has mounted a defence of Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, saying the Justice Secretary has 'done the right thing'.
The Housing Secretary told GB News: "The Justice Secretary, in my view, has done the right thing.
"You can't as Justice Secretary comment on an individual case if you don't have all the facts to hand."
New poll has Labour plunging to fourth as Reform and Greens surge
A damning new opinion poll has Labour slumping into fourth behind Reform UK, the Green Party and the Conservatives.
The poll from FindOutNow has Nigel Farage's party on 33 per cent, with Zack Polanski's Greens on 18 per cent and the Tories on 16 per cent.
Labour falls a point behind on 15 per cent while the Liberal Democrats are on 11 per cent.
While Reform UK would win 386 seats under the scenario, the Greens would win 55 seats in cities and university towns.
This includes former Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry’s seat of Islington South and Finsbury and former transport secretary Louise Haigh’s Sheffield Heeley constituency.
WATCH: Britons hit out at Rachel Reeves as she plots car tax: 'Haven't we paid enough?'
Claire Coutinho slams 'shameful' David Lammy - 'There is no sympathy from me!'
Claire Coutinho has slammed David Lammy's performance at PMQs yesterday, saying she has no sympathy for the Justice Secretary.
The Shadow Energy Secretary told GB News: "If the personell isn't working you have got to change it. There is no sympathy from me.
"The most shameful part for me is he didn't come back to the house after PMQs yesterday."
"He left it to a junior minister to answer for it yesterday morning on the media. That to me was pretty shameful."
Arabic poster urging Labour voters to switch to Greens to block Reform spotted in London
Mr Farage, Mr Polanski, Mrs Badenoch and Sir Keir's faces all featured on the poster | GB NEWSA poster calling for Arabic speakers to vote for the Green Party to stop Nigel Farage winning the next General Election has been spotted at a London bus stop.
GB News has seen a photo of the poster, which was accompanied by an English version, on Edgware Road earlier today.
The poster, which was not accompanied with any labelling to suggest it had been sanctioned by the Green Party, urged residents in the Queen's Park & Maida Vale constituency to tactically block Nigel Farage's march to power.
Ed Davey calls for return of face-to-face Pip assessments
Sir Ed Davey has demanded the reinstating of face-to-face Pip assessments to prevent a "massive explosion" of people claiming the benefit who "probably may not need it."
The Liberal Democrat leader told the BBC that telephone assessments have allowed people to be "schooled" on how to respond to questions in a way that secures the benefit.
He added: "Now surely that’s wrong and that is a way you could save money."
Lucy Powell demands 'budget of fairness' as she lays down gauntlet to Rachel Reeves
Labour's Lucy Powell made the comments on Radio 4 | PALabour's Deputy Leader Lucy Powell has called for a "budget of fairness" as she warned the Government cannot raise income tax, national insurance or VAT.
Ms Powell, the MP for Manchester Central, said it was "really important we stand by the promises we were elected on and do what we said we would do."
She told the BBC: "Trust in politics is a key part of that because if we’re to take the country with us then they’ve got to trust us and that’s really important too.
"We should be following through on our manifesto, of course. There’s no question about that.”
Rachel Reeves appears to confirm plans to hike income tax in chilling letter to OBR
Rachel Reeves is said to have now told the OBR she plans to raise income tax.
Last night, it was revealed the Chancellor had formally told the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) that hiking the levy would be among the "major measures" announced on November 26.
After poring over Ms Reeves's letter, the OBR will inform the Treasury of its impact assessment of the measure on Monday - the penultimate round of forecasts before the Budget.
Zia Yusuf: 'More MPs will lose their seats at next election than ever before - and I'll love it'
More MPs will "lose their seats in a single general election than at any point in British history", Reform UK's Zia Yusuf has vowed.
Mr Yusuf, the head of policy at the party, told today's Chopper's Political Podcast of Reform's ambition to cut public spending - but admitted it would not halve the size of the state after five years.
He also issued a forecast for the scale of the upheaval Reform is internally planning for at the next General Election, expected in 2029.
The Reform UK bigwig spoke to this week's Chopper's Political Podcast, which you can watch in full here.
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