GB News star Martin Daubney has been left astonished after David Lammy defended his decision not to inform MPs about the mistaken release of an Algerian sex offender.
The People’s Channel’s political correspondent Katherine Forster delivered an equally damning verdict on the Justice Secretary’s first-ever Prime Minister’s Questions performance as pressure mounts on the Deputy Prime Minister.
Earlier today, Mr Lammy, who was standing in for Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, said he was “right” not to provide details to MPs of the accidental release of Ibrahim Kaddour-Cherif.
In his first public appearance since the news broke on Wednesday of two accidental releases from HMP Wandsworth, Mr Lammy said: “I first found out about this on Wednesday morning, I was in the department both learning from officials but also preparing for Prime Minister’s Questions.
“At the despatch box, I did not have all of the detail, that detail was actually released just later after I had finished at Prime Minister’s Questions.
“I took the judgement that it is important when updating the House and the country about serious matters like this that you have all of the detail.
“I was not equipped with all of the detail and the danger is you that end up misleading the House and the general public. So that is the judgement I took. I think it’s the right judgement.”
Speaking to Katherine live on air, Martin raged against Mr Lammy: “You and I were in astonishment in the studio together yesterday as this farcical, ridiculous, dangerous scene unravelled before our eyes.”
Martin ripped into David Lammy after several prisoners were mistakenly released from British prisons
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“Still a lot of questions need to be asked,” Martin adamantly demanded.
Mr Lammy is understood to have had a statement prepared to deliver from the despatch box upon the breaking of the box, but decided against it, allies have indicated.
“But figures have come out overnight that mistaken releases have simply skyrocketed under the Labour regime. When will this Government take accountability for what is happening on its watch?” Martin exclaimed.
Reiterating the statement, Katherine revealed that accidental releases have “more than doubled under Labour”, although the “seeds of this crisis were laid long ago”.
The correspondent mentioned a number of factors, including “huge” cuts to prison budgets and a rising number of inexperienced staff over the years.
“It’s very curious because yesterday we sat here and we were led to believe that he’d known the night before,” Katherine said.
“I still think it’s very problematic for David Lammy. First of all, he was exceedingly angry. He was really, really, really cross.
“James Cartlidge was more than entitled to ask those questions. David Lammy did not react well, and also he did know he might not have known if the guy was an asylum seeker.
Katherine Forster gave her verdict on David Lammy’s
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In the Commons, the Shadow Defence Secretary asked his Labour counterpart five times whether he knew an asylum-seeking prisoner had been accidentally released since Ethiopian sex offender was freed from HMP Chelmsford in error last month.
Katherine continued: “He might not have had the details, but we know that he had a statement ready to go. I’m still absolutely mystified as to why he didn’t get ahead of it, knowing that it was going to break and begin before PMQs got underway.”
She added: “I think there’s a lot of unhappiness in the Labour Party, right up to very senior levels about his outing in PMQs yesterday.
Weighing in, Martin declared: “I think the situation really still is as clear as mud. I really, really do.”