Justice Secretary Gets 'Opportunity' from Prison Release Mistakes, Says Harman

Labour peer Harriet Harman has suggested that the recent string of wrongful prisoner releases could actually work in David Lammy’s favour, offering him a chance to tackle deep-rooted issues in the justice system.

Speaking on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Harman said the embarrassing errors — including the accidental release of two inmates from HMP Wandsworth last week — highlight long-standing systemic failures. They follow the earlier mistaken release of migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford.

Instead of fuelling a political row between Labour and the Conservatives, Harman argued the situation gives the justice secretary an opportunity to “roll up his sleeves” and push for the resources and focus his department needs. She pointed to data showing 262 inmates were wrongly freed in the year to March 2025 — roughly five every week — and warned the real figure may be even higher.

Lammy, who also serves as deputy prime minister, is facing intense scrutiny. During PMQs, he refused to confirm whether any more asylum seekers had been improperly released after the Kebatu case — just as it emerged that Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif had also been freed in error. Lammy was informed of this overnight on Tuesday but said he withheld the information because he lacked full details and did not want to mislead the public.

Critics have also noted that Lammy vowed to tighten prison release procedures on 27 October, yet Kaddour-Cherif was wrongly released just two days later, and another man, William “Billy” Smith, was mistakenly freed on Monday. Smith surrendered on Thursday, but Kaddour-Cherif remains at large.