Escape of terror suspect Daniel Khalife piles additional stress on already embattled Rishi Sunak

Unless he is recaptured rapidly, the escape of terror suspect Daniel Khalife may set off one other political disaster for Rishi Sunak on high of the varsity concrete fiasco.

Labour is already on the assault and the new-ish justice secretary, Alex Chalk, who was appointed in April, will likely be below stress to come back to the Commons to reply accusations of presidency incompetence.

“The Conservatives need to urgently explain how they can’t do the basic job of keeping potentially dangerous criminals locked up,” the brand new shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood declared in a hard-hitting response to the escape.

“It’s right that the police are given space to recapture this suspect. But Rishi Sunak needs to ensure there is no wider risk because his zombie government lacks grip on the criminal justice system.”

Zombie authorities? Harsh. But whether or not or not a jail break-out can actually be blamed on the federal government, it is ministers who’ll get the flak from political opponents and critics of the jail system.

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There are sturdy similarities between this escape and that of two IRA remand prisoners, Pearse McAuley and Nessan Quinlivan, from Brixton jail in 1991 utilizing a shotgun and holding a jail officer hostage.

Back then, prisons have been run by the Home Office, earlier than they have been transferred to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) by Tony Blair in 2007 after his residence secretary John Reid famously stated his division was “not fit for purpose” in 2006.

The 1991 Brixton break-out plunged John Major’s residence secretary Kenneth Baker right into a political disaster, as he was hauled earlier than the Commons to make a press release to MPs – the primary of many – and confronted accusations of incompetence and calls to resign.

In the Commons, Mr Baker was accused of ignoring suggestions by the then chief inspector of prisons, Judge Stephen Tumin, that Brixton jail was not appropriate for prisoners on remand for terrorist offences as a result of it wasn’t safe sufficient.

No doubt there will likely be claims from MPs that the identical might be stated of Wandsworth, a jail relationship from Victorian instances, and Mr Chalk will likely be challenged to clarify why Khalife wasn’t within the high-security Belmarsh jail.

Read extra:
Why wasn’t escaped terror suspect Khalife banged up in trendy Belmarsh?

Some critics may also little doubt declare that the MOJ is no longer match for goal, partly as a result of because the Tories got here to energy in 2010 with David Cameron’s coalition authorities there have been 10 justice secretaries.

Those names in full: Kenneth Clarke, Chris Grayling, Michael Gove, Liz Truss, David Lidington, David Gauke, Sir Robert Buckland, Dominic Raab (twice), Brandon Lewis and now Mr Chalk.

Ten? Yes, that is precisely the identical quantity as there have been training secretaries over the identical interval. Coincidence? This week it is the Department for Education that is accused of blunders over its dealing with of crumbling concrete in colleges.

Mr Chalk says he known as a gathering with the Wandsworth governor after the escape to ensure “all necessary steps have been taken to secure the prison”. Bit late now, Mr Chalk!

He additionally says they mentioned the investigation. That, clearly, is now for Scotland Yard, whose senior officers should be livid at what appears like a list of blunders contained in the jail.

How on earth did Khalife get his fingers on a chef’s uniform? And how did he handle to connect himself and cling on to the beneath of a van undetected?

Finally, Mr Chalk says he is receiving common updates. So he must be!

To save himself and Mr Sunak’s authorities from additional embarrassment, Mr Chalk will hope that considered one of his common updates from the governor brings information that Khalife has been recaptured.