80 prison officers didn’t show up on day Daniel Khalife ‘escaped’

Rishi Sunak’s government has revealed that 80 prison officers failed to show up for work HMP Wandsworth on the day terror suspect Daniel Abed Khalife allegedly escaped from the jail.

Nearly four in 10 of the prison’s staff skipped shifts, a Tory minister admitted – despite the government’s insistence that staff shortages were not a factor in the apparent security breach.

On Monday Khalife was charged with fleeing from HMP Wandsworth on 6 September by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery lorry.

The 21-year-old ex-solider, who had worked in the kitchen, was arrested on a canal towpath in west London on Saturday after being pulled off a bike by a plain-clothes counter-terrorism officer.

Responding to a Labour question about staffing levels on the day of the incident, prisons minister Damian Hinds said only 61 per cent of Wandsworth’s officers attended work as expected.

But the minister said: “All staff in both the kitchen and the gatehouse were on duty on 6 September. An initial investigation into Daniel Khalife’s escape did not find the staffing level to be a contributing factor.”

The Sunak government has been reluctant to accept staff shortages or absences could be to blame. But an independent probe led by ex-National Crime Agency boss is now looking at Wandsworth’s wider shortcomings – with staffing levels set to be scrutinised.

Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, has insisted that “there are too many prisoners in Wandsworth for the amount of staff” – adding that lack of officers was highlighted in his 2021 report.

Writing for The Independent, Mr Taylor said HMP Wandsworth had become “one of the most squalid, overcrowded prisons in the estate” – describing it as a jail “that struggles in almost every area.”

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The chief inspector added: “The single biggest problem that faces Wandsworth is a lack of staff, with shortages in every area, from healthcare to education. When we inspected, we found that 30% of prison officers were either off sick or unable to perform their full duties.

He said many of the officers were very inexperienced, having only recently joined the service, with some were only recently out of school.

Mr Hinds insisted that staffing levels at Wandsworth on the day of the security breach “were above the minimum staffing level required”. While 125 prison officers at the prison attended their shift, 80 officers did not.

Labour’s Rosena Allin-Khan, MP for Wandsworth, who asked the question about staffing on the day of the alleged escape, said she had raised concerns about “significant shortages” with ministers months ago.

Ms Allin-Khan told The Independent: “When I visited Wandsworth prison a few months ago, the biggest issue they were facing were staff shortages. This is why I raised concerns about staffing levels – which showed just six officers turned up for a shift one night in December. The government chose to ignore my concerns.”

She added: “It beggars belief that the government is claiming that 61% of prison officers attending a shift is acceptable. Their complacency is astounding and illustrates how unfit they are to run the country. Our communities are being failed.”

The Independent asked Ministry of Justice about staffing levels at Wandsworth at time of the alleged escape, prior to Ms Allin-Khan’s question, but the department said they could not release figures because there was an ongoing investigation.

When the Labour MP previously asked about staffing levels at Wandsworth in January, the government said 72 per cent of officers turned up in the morning, 76 per cent were on in the afternoon, while 75 per cent were on at night.

The prison officers’ union, the POA, pointed to government cuts as a factor in reduced staffing levels. “You cannot take out £900m from the budget … and expect the prison service to operate as if nothing has happened,” said union boss Steve Gillan.

Amid questions about whether terror suspect Khalife should have been held in a category A prison, rather a category B facility, around 40 inmates were moved out of Wandsworth this week. Justice secretary Alex Chalk said they were moved out of “an abundance of caution” and an extra governor had been put in place.

On Friday Keith Bristow, former director-general of the National Crime Agency, was appointed as the investigator into the alleged prison escape.

His probe will consider whether relevant protocols were in place, how Khalife was given access to materials that might have facilitated it, along with staffing levels and security measures.

Mr Hinds responded to the Ms Allin-Khan’s question by saying the government had brought in 4,000 more prison officers than in March 2017. “We are also recruiting 5,000 prison officers across public and private prisons by the mid-2020s,” he added.