Met police issue statement with more information about missing Algerian prisoner
The Metropolitan police have released a new statement about the Algerian prisoner who was released from Wandsworth jail by mistake last week. The Met said:
We can confirm that the released prisoner is 24-year-old Brahim Kaddour-Cherif who is an Algerian national. He is also known to use other variations of his name, including Ibrahim.
He is believed to have links to Tower Hamlets and is also known to frequent the Westminster area.
We are aware of reporting that Cherif is a registered sex offender and can confirm that is accurate.
He was convicted in November 2024 of indecent exposure relating to an incident in March that year. He was sentenced to an 18 month community order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
And Cmdr Paul Trevers, who is overseeing the hunt for Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, said:
It is just over 24 hours since we were informed of Cherif’s release. We launched an immediate manhunt and urgent inquiries have been ongoing since.
Cherif has had a six-day head-start but we are working urgently to close the gap and establish his whereabouts.
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Early evening summary
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Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has said that Labour could learn lessons from Zohran Mamdani victory in the New York mayoral election. In an interview with the News Agents podcast, Streeting said:
There are a few things that struck me following Mandani’s campaign all the way through.
The first is that authenticity is the most powerful currency in politics at the moment. I think there’s such a lack of trust in politics and politicians that that authenticity that he showed throughout the campaign, really, really matters.
The second is that hope is a more powerful force than fear. So, throughout the campaign, he had to contend with lots of attacks on his character, his faith, as a Muslim in public life – there is no shortage of that challenge here in Britain, I’m afraid, too. And he withstood those attacks, and actually, in some ways, hung a lantern on the issues that he was going to be attacked on …
And the third one, because I think this is absolutely applicable to the UK right now, a ruthless message discipline on cost of living, a constant focus on it. It was a part of every single bit of digital output I saw, and was at the heart of his policy offer. And that is a really big issue for us here in the UK at the moment as well.
So, I think those are the sorts of things that we ought to be looking at, and progressives internationally will be looking at.
But Zarah Sultana, the MP who was elected Labour but who is now setting up a leftwing party with Jeremy Corbyn, posted this in response to a tweet from Streeting welcoming Mamdani’s victory.
Your Labour Party would have already expelled him lol
Sultana and her colleagues, who are closer to Mamdani’s politics, were elated by his win. (See 9.56am.)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
David Lammy at PMQs. Photograph: House of Commons/PAShare
Updated at 13.18 EST
MPs vote to restore day one protection from unfair dismissal in employment rights bill following Lords defeat
MPs have voted to restore protection from unfair dismissal from day one of a worker’s employment in the employment rights bill.
The Lords passed an amendment to remove day one rights when peers debated the bill last week, but today MPs voted to take the Lords amendment – and four other anti-government clauses inserted by peers.
It was the latest stage in the “ping pong” process where a bill that has almost finished its passage through parliament shuttles between the Commons and the Lords until the final disagreements are resolved. This ritual normally ends with peers giving way to the Commons, after they feel they have made their point.
In the Commons Angela Rayner, who introduced the bill when she was deputy PM and housing secretary, defended the principle of day one rights. She said:
Day one protection from unfair dismissal will not remove the right of businesses to dismiss people who cannot do their job or pass a probation, but it will tackle cases of unfair dismissal, where hard-working employees are sacked without a good reason.
A six-month qualifying period threshold still leaves employees exposed to dismissal without good reason in the early months of a new job.
I cannot believe the party opposite thinks in this day and age we should dismiss people unfairly. I don’t understand it.
On this side of the house, we believe workers deserve fairness, dignity and respect at work, and they deserve it from day one on the job.
All five Lords defeats were overturned with majorities of around 150.
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Met police issue statement with more information about missing Algerian prisoner
The Metropolitan police have released a new statement about the Algerian prisoner who was released from Wandsworth jail by mistake last week. The Met said:
We can confirm that the released prisoner is 24-year-old Brahim Kaddour-Cherif who is an Algerian national. He is also known to use other variations of his name, including Ibrahim.
He is believed to have links to Tower Hamlets and is also known to frequent the Westminster area.
We are aware of reporting that Cherif is a registered sex offender and can confirm that is accurate.
He was convicted in November 2024 of indecent exposure relating to an incident in March that year. He was sentenced to an 18 month community order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
And Cmdr Paul Trevers, who is overseeing the hunt for Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, said:
It is just over 24 hours since we were informed of Cherif’s release. We launched an immediate manhunt and urgent inquiries have been ongoing since.
Cherif has had a six-day head-start but we are working urgently to close the gap and establish his whereabouts.
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Fraudster from Surrey also wrongly released from Wandsworth jail days after Algerian prisoner release error, police say
Another prisoner was recently released from Wandsworth prison by mistake, it has emerged. Surrey police has issued a statement saying that it is trying to find “35-year-old William Smith, who goes by the name Billy, after he was released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Monday”.
The statement says:
Smith was sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences at Croydon Crown Court on Monday (3 November), during which he appeared via a live video link from HMP Wandsworth.
He is described as White, bald, and clean shaven.
Smith has links to Woking but could be anywhere in Surrey.
The Algerian man whose case was raised in the Commons after PMQs, Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, was released wrongly from Wandsworth prison on Wednesday last week.
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Updated at 12.07 EST
Foreign prisoner released accidentally ‘first entered UK in 2019’
The Algerian prisoner who was released by mistake from HMP Wandsworth last week is not an asylum seeker and may have been in the UK for about six years, it has emerged.
He entered the UK on a visit visa in 2019, and in February 2020 was logged as someone who had probably overstayed. He is now at the initial stages of the deportation process, according to sources familiar with the case.
It is Home Office policy to deport foreign nationals who commit crimes in the UK. More than 35,000 foreign nationals were returned during Labour’s first 12 months in office, including 5,179 foreign national offenders (FNOs). That was a 14% increase on FNO returns in the previous 12 months.
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Streeting offers benefits to residential doctors in hope of averting strike planned for next week
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has made a fresh package of offers to resident doctors in a bid to avert strike action, PA Media reports. PA says:
Resident doctors in England, formerly known as junior doctors, are set to strike for five days from Friday next week in an ongoing row over jobs and pay.
The British Medical Association said resident doctors will walk out from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Streeting has now set out a package of measures and called on doctors to call off the “unnecessary” strike action.
The package includes doubling of “additional” speciality training posts to avoid doctors being out of work, and other incentives including covering the costs of mandatory exams and membership fees.
In a letter to resident doctors, he said: “The offer is one that will deliver more training places for resident doctors, put more money in your pockets, and improve your working lives. It will also protect patients – and your fellow NHS staff – from the disruption and damage of industrial action should you choose to accept this offer.”
Streeting has previously said the government will not budge on headline pay.
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Lancashire’s Reform-run council plans to close care homes and day centres to sell off land
Lancashire’s Reform-run council has been accused of “selling off the family silver” with plans to save £4m a year by closing five council-run care homes and five day centres and selling off the land, Helen Pidd reports.
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Philp says complaining about Tories wrongly calling release error prisoner asylum seeker is ‘dancing on head of pin’
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, has dismissed complaints about the Tories wrongly describing the foreign prisoner released by mistake as an asylum seeker by accusing critics of “dancing on the head of a pin”.
Philp was speaking in a BBC interview in which he claimed David Lammy was “dishonest” at PMQs because he refused to confirm that there had been another accidental prison release, even though he knew there had been.
Lammy was asked if another asylum seeker had been accidentally released, and at the end of PMQs James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, told MPs that a “second asylum seeker” had in fact got out by mistake. (See 12.44pm.)
When it was put to him that the person who was released was not actually an asylum seeeker, Philp replied:
I think that is dancing on the head of a pin.
Clearly the release of a foreign national criminal, a man with previous sex offences, is relevant, it is germane to the question that was asked.
And, despite the fact that David Lammy was standing there with the briefing notes in his folder [see 3.57pm], he chose not to tell the public in parliament. Instead, he shouted and he blustered. He hid the truth. He was dishonest with parliament and dishonest with the public.
Philp said that Labour had been in power for almost a year and a half, and that they were responsible for running the prison system. He claimed that if they were to adopt the Tory policy of withdrawing from the European convention on human rights, they could deport foreign prisoners more easily.
Chris Philp being interviewed on BBC News Photograph: BBCShare
Updated at 11.21 EST
David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, declined to confirm that another foreign offender had been released from prison by mistake because he did not want to pre-empt a police statement on the matter, Steven Swinford from the Times reports. Swinford says:
I’m told David Lammy had a pre-prepared statement that was ready to go on the accidental release of the migrant sex offender as he stood at the despatch box
It expressed outrage on behalf of victims and criticised the Tories. But he didn’t use it, instead refusing to comment when it was repeatedly put to him that a prisoner had been released
Lammy is said not to have wanted to pre-empt any statement from the Met Police. The statement was there in case the news broke during Prime Minister’s questions
Swinford suggests some government colleagues think that Lammy should have answered the question, and that they view his defiant tone as a mistake.
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The Algerian man who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth in south-west London last week is Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, PA Media is reporting.
ShareLibby Brooks
Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.
Ahead of Highland council’s meeting tomorrow to discuss the UK government’s proposals to turn Inverness barracks into accommodation for asylum seekers, a report from senior officials has recommended the local authority writes to the Home Office to seek “urgent clarity”.
The plan was to move the first asylum seekers into Cameron Barracks – as well as another site in Sussex – by the end of the month, but it has been reported that this may be delayed due to major safety work including asbestos removal.
With significant local opposition emerging to the proposal council officers said:
At the point of writing, there remains a lack of detail as regards what the Home Office proposals will mean, with key questions outstanding in relation to the specifics around implementation, community safeguarding and impact on local services.
After a meeting with UK asylum minister Alex Norris yesterday, Holyrood’s social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville likewise called for clarity on the impact on health, policing and other local services. She said:
The Home Office must provide urgent clarity to stop the spread of disinformation amongst communities in Inverness. Scotland welcomes refugees and people seeking asylum but it is vital that the Home Office provides clear communication and reassurances on the impact on local services.
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Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, has claimed that “British people are being put at risk by the sheer incompetence” of the government. He said this in an open letter sent to David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary.
Letter to Lammy Photograph: Robert JenrickShare
Does Labour have a definition of ‘working people’?
A reader asks:
Andrew, has Labour yet really defined “working people or hard working families”?
These terms are continuing to be used but the definition seems to continually vary.
Yesterday Reeves stated that “those people went out to work and relied on public services”.
Surely that’s all going to encompass a lot of potentially higher earners as well as potentially more modest earners.
Given those people are the focus of Starmer’s “mind’s eye” and were told they’d be exempt from tax rises, it seems curious that they haven’t been defined.
“Hard-working families” were always basically just families where at least one person works. But we don’t hear so much about them now.
“Working people” are a more important group, because the phrase crops up 20 times in Labour’s manifesto. Two of the most important are in the passage on tax.
We will ensure taxes on working people are kept as low as possible. Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase national insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or VAT.
You are right to say that Labour has not provided a formal, fixed definition. At various times they have been defined as people who don’t have large savings they can rely on if they face difficulties (by Keir Starmer), anyone who gets a payslip (by Darren Jones), people on modest incomes (by Heidi Alexander).
Last week Sam Coates from Sky News offered a new definition. He said:
Sky News has obtained an internal definition of “working people” used by the Treasury.
Officials have been tasked with protecting the income of the lower two-thirds of working people, meaning in theory people earning more than around £46,000 could face a squeeze in the budget.
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Badenoch renews call for more North Sea oil drilling, claiming UK faces ‘oil and gas emergency’
Libby Brooks
Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.
Kemi Badenoch has been in Aberdeen today where she declared an “oil and gas emergency” which she blamed on the “anti-growth policies of the Labour government in Westminster and the SNP in Holyrood”.
The Tories have been focusing heavily on the oil and gas sector in recent month, as Reform UK pledges to ditch the drive to net zero entirely if elected. Climate emergency campaigners have dismissed both parties as reckless.
Badenoch said:
By the end of Labour’s first term in office, it’s not inconceivable that Scotland’s oil and gas sector will be at serious risk, with domestic production currently set to half by 2030. That would be a shocking indictment of Labour’s energy policy, and a dangerous act of economic self-sabotage.
Enough is enough. Keir Starmer must find the backbone to ditch Ed Miliband’s net zero fanaticism, which is forcing up bills and driving away industry.
Instead, the prime minister should do what our economy needs, scrap the energy profits levy and end the moratorium on new licences in the North Sea. If the Labour government fails to act, we could be witness to the end of our domestic energy security as we know it.
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The Liberal Democrats say David Lammy should return to the Commons to make a statement about the latest mistaken prisoner releasee. Jess Brown-Fuller, the Lib Dem justice spokesperson, said:
Just when you couldn’t think things could get any worse for the Ministry of Justice, somehow they have. It would be laughable if the situation weren’t so dangerous.
This is yet another grave mistake from the government. The public deserves a full explanation about how this has happened again. That should start with David Lammy coming back before parliament this afternoon for why he failed to answer this pressing question in PMQs as well as a full explanation of how it took almost a week for this to come to light.
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Latest prisoner wrongly released not an asylum seeker, source says
Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor, says she has been told that the Algerian prisoner mistakenly released is not an asylum seeker.
UPDATE: The wrongly released prisoner is *not* an asylum seeker, I’m told.
“This shows it’s wise to check all your facts,” a source says of Cartlidge’s questions.
More info expected on his immigration status later.
The Telegraph first reported that the man was an asylum seeker, and James Cartlidge repeated this in the Commons after PMQs. (See 12.44pm.) No 10 did not correct this at the post-PMQs lobby briefing.
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Kemi Badenoch was not attending PMQs today, but she is not taking the day off. She has been posting on social media, claiming the latest prisoner release shows that the government is a “shambles”.
.@jcartlidgemp asked the Deputy PM FIVE times to tell us if ANOTHER migrant sex offender had been accidentally released from prison.
Instead of answering, Lammy lost his temper.
Now we read it HAS happened again & he’s been on the run for a week. This is a shambles of a govt.
In the Commons last month, in a statement on Hadush Kebatu, David Lammy said that when the Conservatives were in power “they presided over 17 mistaken [prison] releases per month”.
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