The government has been thrown into confusion after a disastrous PMQs performance from David Lammy. The deputy prime minister and justice secretary was unable to say whether any other asylum seekers had been accidentally freed from prison since Hadush Kebatu's bungled release – just minutes before it was revealed that another prisoner is on the run after being mistakenly freed in London.
Standing in for Keir Starmer – who is probably relieved he sat this one out – the rattled DPM was asked five times whether any "asylum-seeking offenders" had been accidentally released from prison in recent weeks. He repeatedly dodged the question.
As the heated back-and-forth came to a close, it emerged that a 24-year-old Algerian national – understood not to be an asylum seeker – was released in error on 29 October, just days after sex offender migrant Hadush Kebatu was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford.
The deputy prime minister, under growing pressure, is now being urged to return to the Commons to explain what he knew and when.
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