A criminal was on the loose for more than a week after being released from prison in error.

In the latest development in Labour’s jails farce, the Ministry of Justice confirmed the unnamed inmate was detained last night, eight days after being mistakenly let out.

Yesterday Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy revealed officials were still trying to establish whether the offender was on the loose after being freed on November 3.

The case was in addition to his admission that three wrongly released prisoners were still at large.

Tory frontbencher Robert Jenrick, who has dubbed the missing prisoners ‘Lammy’s lags’, said it showed Mr Lammy was ‘asleep at the wheel’.

‘Calamity Lammy didn’t know his department had lost a prisoner for over a week,’ the Shadow Justice Secretary said.

‘He’s asleep at the wheel.

‘Since Lammy introduced his “strongest ever checks” three prisoners have been mistakenly released.

‘They’re failing and the British people are being put at risk on a nearly daily basis as a result.’

The Tory MP added: ‘There’s never been a better time to be a criminal.

‘How can the Prime Minister have any confidence in Lammy to keep the public the safe?’

Mr Lammy faced a grilling from MP yesterday, a week after brazenly dodging questions on the bungles.

He told the Commons 91 prisoners had been let out by mistake in just seven months.

Three are still on the loose - two British nationals and a foreign national.

The first was in jail for failure to surrender to the police before being freed in December 2024.

The second was in prison for a Class B drug offence until being released in August 2024. The third was in prison for aggravated burglary and released in error in June 2025.

He was unable to say whether a fourth inmate had been released in error.

But it has now been confirmed it had been a wrongful release, and that the unnamed offender was returned to custody by Leicestershire Police overnight.

The problems first surfaced after Epping migrant hotel resident and sex offender Hadush Kebatu was let out of HMP Chelmsford on October 24 and arrested in north London after a two-day manhunt. It was followed by further cases.

The Deputy PM was heavily criticised for his evasive performance while standing in for Keir Starmer at PMQs last week.

Mr Lammy was branded a 'clown' by opponents after refusing to answer directly whether another foreign offender had been let out by mistake - only for the truth to be confirmed minutes later.

He also compounded the confusion by suggesting he had spent the morning out suit shopping instead of dealing with the crisis.

Defending his blustering performance at PMQs, Mr Lammy said: 'I made a judgment that I would wait until I had all the detail, rather than risk giving an accurate or incomplete or misleading picture to the House about a sensitive case.'

He offered an 'unequivocal apology' to anyone who had suffered due to the errors.

But he claimed it was 'unsurprising' that mistakes took place in a prison system that is 'underfunded, unstaffed and operating under relentless strain'.

There were 262 releases in error from prison in the year to March 2025, of whom 87 were of offenders whose main offence was violence against a person, and three whose main offence was a sexual offence, MPs heard.

Additional figures published yesterday said between April and October there had been another 91 releases in error.

Mr Lammy said: 'I'm clear that we must bear down on these numbers, which are symptomatic of a prison system under a horrendous strain.’

Downing Street admitted the figures were 'shocking'.

'These numbers, they are symptomatic of a system that the Government inherited, of a prison system under severe strain, a failing criminal justice system,' a No 10 spokesman said.

'As we've set out previously, the Government inherited a (situation) where the male prison estate was running at 99 per cent capacity. That risks the potential breakdown of law and order.

'The public are right to be shocked by these cases.

'We're clear that you can't fix the prisons crisis overnight, but we have taken immediate action, including tougher new release checks, calling in prison governors, sending in tech experts.’