Ministers are facing calls to launch an independent inquiry into how a prisoner was able to escape from a London jail while awaiting trial for terror offences.
Daniel Abed Khalife, 21, is alleged to have escaped from Wandsworth prison – one of the UK’s largest – under a food truck.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the government “has grave questions to answer” regarding staffing and national security arrangements.
Fears grow over escaped terror suspect – live updates
She told Sky News that an internal prison service inquiry “is not sufficient” – and Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, should launch an independent investigation.
Mr Chalk is due to deliver a statement in the House of Commons at around 11.30am.
Ms Cooper said the government needed to explain “issues around staffing and the arrangements for the national security prisoners and where they are being held”.
Most UK terror suspects are kept in southeast London’s HMP Belmarsh – a Category A prison that is considered the UK’s most secure.
No prisoner has ever escaped from Belmarsh but there have been some, albeit rare, cases of escapes from Wandsworth.
The Category B prison was built 170 years ago and described in a watchdog report two years ago as “overcrowded, crumbling, vermin-infested” and suffering with staff shortages.
The same report said an inmate managed to escape from Wandsworth in 2019 and highlighted continuing concerns about security.
Meanwhile, The Prison Officer Association (POA) said Wandsworth Prison is “overcrowded and under resourced” and is experiencing “chronic staffing shortages”.
‘Cuts have consequences’
POA General Secretary Steve Gillan said: “No one ever wants to see an escape from Prison but since 2010 this union has been on record as saying cuts have consequences. You cannot take out 900 million from the budget with reduced staffing levels up and down the country and expect the Prison Service to operate as if nothing has happened.”
Labour’s call was backed by the Liberal Democrats who said there needs to be an “independent review into the entire prison categorisation process”.
Justice spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said: “There are serious questions to answer about how Daniel Abed Khalife escaped – and why he was placed in HMP Wandsworth in the first place.
“Prison staffing shortages and retention issues have become the norm under this Conservative Government. We cannot let prison breaks become commonplace, too.”
Khalife went missing in his cook’s uniform from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, prompting extra security checks at major transport hubs.
There are fears the fugitive – who has been missing since 8am on Wednesday – might try to flee the country.
Cabinet minister Michelle Donelan acknowledged there were “questions that need answering” during media rounds on Thursday and that the public would be concerned.
But she batted away questions about a link between the escape and the UK’s over-stretched prison system
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “We can’t say why this happened until we’ve got the results of that investigation.
“I don’t think it’s helpful to get into a hypothetical of what was the cause, or what allowed this individual to evade the system and manage to escape.”
‘Ongoing staffing issues’ at Wandsworth prison
Earlier Rosena Allin-Khan, the Labour MP for the area, told Sky News there was an “ongoing issue with staffing levels” at Wandsworth Prison.
She said: “There was one shift last December where on a night shift there were only seven staff members to look after 1,500 prison inmates.
“So what they had to do in order to make up the numbers was to actually ask people to stay and do a double shift to make up the shortfall.”
She added: “Ultimately, where you have a prison service which is woefully understaffed, under-resourced, when you have crumbling buildings, when you have people not able to stay in sanitary conditions and you have staff off with their mental health, staff off with exhaustion, you are going to be more open to incidents like this.”
Khalife, who was awaiting trial after allegedly planting a fake bomb at an RAF base and gathering information that might be useful to terrorists or enemies of the UK, was discharged from the Army in May 2023.
He has denied the three charges against him.
He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, red and white chequered trousers and brown, steel toe-cap boots, the Metropolitan Police said. He is slim and 6ft 2in tall, with short brown hair.
The jail was put on lockdown after he fled.