How can the PM stand by Lammy after jails farce?

T'S COWARDLY. He should have fronted up and owned it." "The handling is terrible." "Rank incompetence and, frankly, pretty dodgy." Those aren't my words. Those are the words of David Lammy's Labour colleagues, as it becomes everclearer that the Justice Secretary has lost control over the prison system.

- By Robert Jenrick

Justice Secretary David Lammy has lost control over the system and is said to be putting lives at risk

Two weeks ago, Hadush Kebatu was accidentally released from prison. Kebatu was an asylum seeker convicted of sexual assault, mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford, and allowed to roam the streets for three days. Remarkably, Kebatu even tried to hand himself back into the authorities five times, and was turned away at every opportunity.

Last week, it was the same story all over again. Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, an Algerian man with a history of sexual offences, was mistakenly released on October 29.

It's part of a broader pattern of dangerous criminals being accidentally released on to the streets under Labour, putting the public at risk and seriously undermining faith in our justice system.

In the past year the accidental release of prisoners has shot up, with more than 250 freed over the past year. Ninety of those early releases have a history of violent crime or sex crime - that's a whopping ninefold increase on previous years. It just shows that Labour have totally lost control over the system.