Minister defends David Lammy and says ‘broken system’ to blame for prisoner releases – UK politics live

Steve Reed says the way to fix the issue ‘is not tittle tattle about David Lammy in the newspapers’Good morning and welcome to our coverage of UK politics as questions continue over David Lammy’s handling of a mistaken prisoner release, with a sex offender still on the run.The deputy prime minister and justice secretary has been criticised over the freeing of Algerian Brahim Kaddour-Cherif from Wandsworth prison. Yesterday the deputy prime minister and justice secretary said the government has “a mountain to climb” to tackle the prisons crisis and insisted he was “not equipped with all the detail” when questioned in parliament on Wednesday about the issue.
But there has been apparent disquiet from colleagues, with The Times quoting anonymous senior ministers as saying he was “cowardly” and guilty of “rank incompetence”.The problem is we’ve got a broken system, and you are going to see failings when you have a broken system. The key is to make sure we have a digital system so that no prisoner is ever released by mistake.There is not an acceptable number for [mistaken releases], but the way to fix it is not tittle tattle about David Lammy in the newspapers, it’s to get on and do the work and put in the investment that will digitise the system. Continue reading...