David Lammy was dramatically accused of ‘bullsh**’ on live TV today as he faces massive pressure over prisoner release bungles.

The Justice Secretary is struggling to contain a mounting backlash after stonewalling repeated questions about bungles in the Commons yesterday.

Minutes later it was confirmed that another foreign offender had been let out of Wandsworth jail in error. 

There are claims that Mr Lammy was told by advisers that agreeing to a request to come back to the House later to make a statement would be ‘career suicide’. 

Appearing on ITV‘s Good Morning Britain, Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick gave a blunt assessment of Mr Lammy’s excuses for dodging direct challenges.

He dismissed claims that details of the situation were still being uncovered as ‘bullsh**’ – forcing host Kate Garraway to apologise to viewers. 

‘Well it’s very early in the morning and your viewers are still having their breakfast but that I’m afraid – if you excuse my language – is total b******t.’

Police are trying to track down Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth on October 29.

They were also searching for another inmate, Billy Smith, 35, accidentally released from the same south-west London prison on Monday.

However, he handed himself in this morning. 

The Government had already promised the ‘strongest checks ever’, and an independent investigation led by Dame Lynne Owens in the wake of last month’s blunder which saw Epping hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu accidentally released.

Mr Lammy is understood to have been briefed about the case on Tuesday night, but apparently did not want to pre-empt a statement from the Met Police.

He was filling in at PMQs for Keir Starmer, who is attending the COP30 climate summit in Brazil.  

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones was sent out to face media questions this morning. Mr Lammy cannot be brought to the Commons before Tuesday now due to a recess. 

Asked about Mr Lammy’s suggestion that he had been shopping for a suit before PMQs yesterday, Ms Davies-Jones told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘He wasn’t out on Oxford Street shopping for a new suit.’

‘He was preparing for Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions. He was preparing to stand in for the Prime Minister, the first ever black person to do so,’ she added.

Further pressed on the issue, Ms Davies-Jones said: ‘He cracked a joke because his poppy had fallen off this suit, which he also addressed during the Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions.

‘I don’t think it’s appropriate to get into the weeds of if he was shopping or not in the morning.’

Ms Davies-Jones also said a review led by Dame Lynne Owens in the wake of last month’s blunder which saw Epping hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu accidentally released will report back ‘in the next few weeks’.

Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), said there are an average of 22 prison releases in error every month.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘The leaders of this service have known about this for over 12 months, but only now it’s in the spotlight. Are they doing something to remedy it?

‘The POA have asked for a royal commission, because we realise that the entire criminal justice system at this moment in time is in complete meltdown.

‘It’s not just prisons. It’s probation, it’s the court, it’s the police. And we want a royal commission to discover not just what’s gone wrong, but more importantly put it right.’