Daniel Sandford
UK correspondent

The BBC understands Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, the Algerian released in error a week ago, is:

• Not an asylum seeker
• Entered the UK legally on a visit visa in 2019
• Overstayed their visa, with an automatic probable over-stayer case created on 6 February 2020
• Is in the initial stages of the deportation process

Image source, Surrey Police

In the last few moments Surrey Police has issued a public appeal to help find another prisoner who was released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Monday.

The force says 35-year-old William Smith, who goes by the name Billy, was sentenced the same day at Croydon Crown Court via video link from HMP Wandsworth.

He was sentenced to nearly four years in prison after being convicted of multiple fraud offences.

Surrey Police says he has "links to Woking but could be anywhere in Surrey".

The service is carrying out "enquiries at pace" to locate him, it says.

He is described as white, bald and clean-shaven, police say, adding: "Smith was last seen wearing a navy long sleeve jumper with the Nike brand ‘tick’ across the front in white, navy blue tracksuit bottoms with a Nike ‘tick’ in white on the left pocket, and black trainers."

It is the second prisoner mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth in a week, including an Algerian man named as Brahim Kaddour-Cherif.

Image source, UK Pool

We've just been hearing more reaction from shadow home secretary Chris Philp, who has accused Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy of "bluster" and hiding the truth as he repeatedly refused to answer whether another another "foreign national" had been mistakenly released from prison.

In the House of Commons earlier today, the Tories pressed Lammy on whether an asylum seeker had been mistaken released. As we previously reported, Algerian national Kaddour-Cherif is not known to be an asylum seeker.

"Despite the fact that David Lammy was standing there with the briefing notes in his folder, he chose not to tell the public and Parliament," Philp says in an interview, after it was revealed that the justice secretary learnt about Brahim Kaddour-Cherif's mistaken release overnight.

"He hid the truth and he was dishonest with Parliament and dishonest with the public."

To tackle the issue, Philps argues, foreign criminals should be deported "the minute their sentence ends".

"If every foreign national offender was due for immediate deportation, they'd be taken from prison to an immigration removal centre and immediately deported," he says.

Angus Thompson
Live reporter

The government has been rocked by revelations that another foreign prisoner - named a short time ago as Brahim Kaddour-Cherif - was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth.

The news followed a heated Prime Minister's Questions, where Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy faced a grilling from the Tories' James Cartlidge about whether such a release had occurred:

• Cartlidge began by raising the case of Hadush Kebatu - an asylum seeker jailed for sex offences in Epping, who was mistakenly released from prison last month
• He then asked Lammy five times whether any other asylum seekers had been released from prison in error - Lammy did not answer directly
• As PMQs ended, reports emerged that a foreign prisoner had been released by mistake - Cartlidge relayed them in the Commons, saying a jailed "asylum seeker" had been mistakenly released. Lammy declined to comment
• At the same time, the Metropolitan Police released a statement, saying they were told by Wandsworth prison at 13:00 on Tuesday that a 24-year-old Algerian man had been "released in error" on 29 October. The BBC understands he is not an asylum seeker
• Keir Starmer's spokesman said the latest error was “unacceptable” and would be investigated

Daniel Sandford
UK correspondent

The name of the man mistakenly released has been confirmed by sources as Brahim Kaddour-Cherif.

He most recently appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court in September on a charge of failing to comply with sex offender requirements.

Image source, PA Media

Metropolitan Police say the 24-year-old Algerian prisoner was mistakenly released from Wandsworth Prison, a Victorian-era facility in south London.

Built in 1851, the complex was originally constructed for fewer than 1,000 prisoners.

An August 2024 report by the Independent Monitoring Board found inmate numbers in the "cramped, squalid" prison had grown to 1,513.

"Wings were chaotic and staff across most units were unable to confirm where all prisoners were during the working day," the report said.

In April, the HM Inspectorate of Prisons noted the population had reduced by 150, and other "limited and fragile" improvements had been made.

Foreign nationals make up about half the prison's population.

In 2023 the prison made headlines after former British soldier Daniel Khalife escaped by clinging to the underside of a lorry.

29 October: A 24-year-old Algerian man is mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth.

13:00 on 4 November: Six days later, the Prison Service informs the Metropolitan Police that a prisoner had been released in error on 29 October.

Overnight into 5 November: Justice Secretary David Lammy is informed about the accidental release.

Around 11:45 on 5 November: The Conservatives reportedly find out that a wrongly released prisoner is at large.

12:00 on 5 November: Lammy repeatedly refuses to answer when asked by shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since the high-profile case of an Epping sex offender last month.

12:43 on 5 November: Cartlidge tells the House of Commons that a second imprisoned migrant had been mistakenly freed - Lammy declined to respond.

13:41 on 5 November: Lammy releases a statement saying he is "outraged and appalled by the foreign criminal wanted by the police" and promises that an "urgent manhunt" is under way.

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

We understand the man mistakenly released has committed multiple offences - one of which is a sex offence.

Sources tell me the sex offence is a less serious offence.

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

There are serious questions being asked in the prison service about why it took a week for HMP Wandsworth to notify the police of the accidental release.

One senior prison source tells me, “the worst case scenario is that they didn’t notice he wasn’t in his cell when he should have been".

"Its not impossible that happened when the state of the prison is the way it is," they add.

When someone is released from custody, there are multiple steps involving a significant amount of paperwork.

Sums are done to work out how much time they have served. Sometimes those sums are done incorrectly and can lead to someone being wrongly released.

Multiple sources who work in prison or have worked in prison say the process of release is complex and bureaucratic, and errors are made.

We’ve continued to hear reactions from opposition parties about the mistaken release from HMP Wandsworth of an Algerian prisoner. Here’s what we’ve heard so far:

• Shadow home secretary Chris Philp says it is “shocking that once again the Labour government has mistakenly allowed a foreign criminal to be released from prison”
• The Liberal Democrats justice spokesperson Jess Brown-Fuller is calling for Justice Secretary David Lammy to return to the House of Commons this afternoon to explain "why he failed to answer" questions during PMQs on whether another prisoner had been mistakenly released
• Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has called the incident a “farce”
• Rosena Allin-Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting - where the prison is located - says: “Local residents will quite rightly be deeply concerned. We urgently need answers from the government and Ministry of Justice as to how this was allowed to happen”

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

The politics of this is all pretty excruciating for the government.

Sima Kotecha reports that David Lammy was informed about the release last night but that the view in government is that it would have been irresponsible for him to talk about it in the House of Commons.

And surely it would not have occurred to Lammy or his team that the Conservatives would get a tip-off before PMQs, enabling James Cartlidge to focus solely – albeit only implicitly – on this issue.

Yet there will be no shortage of those now queuing up to make the case that, whatever the operational sensitivities, Lammy made the wrong call. I am hearing from people in government who fear that the public perception will now be that the deputy prime minister was deliberately avoiding candour.

In the course of writing this post, I have even heard from one government minister – yes one of Lammy’s own colleagues – questioning whether what Lammy said and did not say was tantamount to misleading the House of Commons.

There’s an important additional point to make, though. It is understood that the prisoner was not an asylum seeker. Cartlidge asked a specific question about asylum seekers. On that basis, it may have not been entirely straightforward for Lammy to give a yes or no answer.

These are questions which not only the Conservatives but the Liberal Democrats want ventilated in the House of Commons this afternoon. After the end of today, MPs won’t return to Parliament until Tuesday. It’s hard to see how this story can rumble that long without Lammy having to speak in public again.

Chris Mason
Political editor

I am told the justice secretary was aware of a case of the accidental release of a foreign prisoner when he arrived for PMQs, but did not know when he entered the chamber whether or not he was an asylum seeker.

David Lammy’s team maintain it was for the Metropolitan Police or others to make any announcement in the first instance, particularly as the full facts were not known to him.

They argue that given the limit to what they knew and not being certain whether James Cartlidge was even referring to the same case, it wouldn’t have been responsible to be drawn into a public discussion about it.

"It is incredibly important to know the facts," a source said.

Image source, Parliament TV

As we've been reporting, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was repeatedly challenged at PMQs over whether there have been any further asylum-seeking offenders accidentally released from prison since Hadush Kebatu last month.

Lammy repeatedly refused to directly answer the question, and referred to previously announced review by former Met Police deputy commissioner Dame Lynne Owens.

He also said that as justice secretary he had strengthened the system since Kebatu's mistaken release.

Here's how Lammy described the changes:

Helen Catt
Political correspondent

The Tories apparently found out 15 minutes before the session that a wrongly released prisoner was at large.

It was something of a gift for them, given the man they were facing across the dispatch box this week was none other than the justice secretary himself.

At first, it seemed a strange choice to people watching for James Cartlidge, standing in for Badenoch, to ask the same question five times.

The repetition, though, suggested it was a question the deputy prime minister either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer.

The real sting, though, came at the end of the session when he revealed that that (historically Conservative-supporting) Telegraph had published a story saying that there was indeed a second man at large.

It threw the government into confusion and immediately sparked questions about what the deputy prime minister knew, or didn’t know, when he chose not to answer that very specific question.

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

I understand David Lammy was informed overnight about the accidental release.

Prison sources tell me it would have been irresponsible for him to talk about it during PMQs because the detail surrounding the case is "incredibly complex".

I understand it involves multiple agencies and new information regarding the case has been constantly emerging over the last 24 hours.

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

A little more now on our previous report that the Algerian man released in error is not an asylum seeker.

Staff at HMP Wandsworth tell me the prison has been in a state of panic after this accidental release with one prison officer describing it as a "shit storm".

I'm told security has been a major concern at the prison for a while now, with an inspection report saying just last year that it was "still reeling from a very high-profile escape that occurred in late 2023".

The report also said it found chaos on the wings, and staff across most units were unable to confirm where all their prisoners were during the working day.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has just issued a statement saying he is "absolutely outraged and appalled by the mistaken release of a foreign criminal wanted by the police".

He says:

"The Metropolitan Police is leading an urgent manhunt, and my officials have been working through the night to take him back to prison.

“Victims deserve better and the public deserve answers. That is why I have already brought in the strongest checks ever to clamp down on such failures and ordered an independent investigation, led by Dame Lynne Owens to uncover what went wrong and address the rise in accidental releases which has persisted for too long.

“This latest incident exposes deeper flaws across the failing criminal justice system we inherited. Dame Lynne Owens’ investigation will leave no stone unturned to identify these issues, so we can fix them, improve safeguards and ensure the public is properly protected.”

As a reminder, Lammy was pressed by shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge several times during PMQs on whether any asylum seekers had been mistakenly released since Hadush Kebatu last month.

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

I understand that the Algerian prisoner released by mistake is not an asylum seeker.

• A 24-year-old Algerian prisoner has been mistakenly released from Wandsworth Prison in south London
• Metropolitan Police say they were told by Wandsworth prison at 13:00 GMT on Tuesday that the prisoner had been "released in error" six days earlier, on Wednesday 29 October
• The Met says that officers are "carrying out urgent enquiries" in an effort to locate him and return him to custody
• The PM's spokesman has called the mistaken release "unacceptable"
• Shortly before the news broke Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was pushed repeatedly by shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge on whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since the high-profile case of an Epping sex offender last month - Lammy refused to confirm

We'll bring you any further developments as we get them.