Lammy needs to get a firm grip on his brief - and fast

As David Lammy is discovering, the doctrine of ministerial accountability is a cruel one. The ministerial code – the nearest thing we have in this respect to a written constitution – is clear.

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It states: “Ministers have a duty to parliament to account, and be held to account, for the policies, decisions and actions of their departments and agencies.”

Or, in plainer terms: “The buck stops with you, minister.”

It’s fair to say that, however beleaguered he feels and however woeful the state of the system he inherited undoubtedly still is, Mr Lammy has not demonstrated a firm grip on his brief, nor shown the accountability someone in his exalted, tricorned position - secretary of state for justice, lord chancellor and deputy prime minister - is expected to demonstrate.

Mr Lammy has, in short, allowed too many dangerous people who should be in prison for serious crimes to be out on the streets. It is not something the public finds easy to accept or even understand, and that is why Mr Lammy finds himself in such a perilous political place. What is more, his mishaps have only added to the impression of a government that can’t seem to get through a week without some scandal or catastrophe sending its popularity to explore fresh Stygian depths.

When Sir Keir Starmer was leader of the opposition, he told the country to give him a mandate so that the “grownups” could take over and show how government can and should be run - effective, efficient, with the utmost integrity, and with a boost to economic growth thrown in. The voters may well ask, in the popular phrase: “How’s that going, prime minister?”