Police have launched a manhunt after a prisoner escaped while on a hospital visit from HMP Wormwood Scrubs.

Officers are looking for Graham Gomm after he escaped from guards on Wednesday night during a visit to Hammersmith Hospital, where he was receiving medical treatment.

The 63-year-old, who was on remand for burglary offences, was reported as having absconded in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The Metropolitan Police said it was scouring the area for Gomm, as well as known addresses that have links to him.

It is the second time in three years that a prisoner has gone on the run from HMP Wormwood Scrubs during a medical visit – in 2021 Manray Woolfall also slipped past his guards during a trip to hospital.

It comes as Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has had to introduce an early release scheme that will see 5,500 prisoners freed 40 per cent of the way through their sentences, rather than halfway, in order to ease the prison overcrowding crisis.

In a statement, the Met said: “Police were alerted at around 01:18 hrs on Thursday, 18 July that Gomm had absconded. He was last seen wearing a grey T-shirt and grey tracksuit.

“Detectives are also concerned for Gomm’s welfare as he was undergoing medical care before he escaped. There is nothing to suggest that Gomm is a threat to the public.

“If anyone sees Gomm they are asked not to approach him but they should call 999.

“Information on his whereabouts can also be shared with police via 101 or post on X @‌MetCC quoting reference CAD0481/18JUL24.”

HMP Wormwood Scrubs is a category B men’s prison in west London which houses around 1,000 inmates.

A prison service spokesman said: “We are urgently working with the Metropolitan Police to recapture this prisoner and investigating how he was able to escape from hospital.”

Businesses including Waterstones and Gail’s have been forced to return to accepting just cash after electronic payments were hit by a web outage.

Shops, cafes, pubs and even Parliament have been impacted by the global systems, forcing customers to use cash to pay for goods and services.

Waitrose told shoppers it was unable to process contactless payments as a global IT outage sparks chaos across the UK.

The middle-class supermarket was understood to only be able to process chip and pin payments or take cash in stores, before confirming its systems were back up and running. Customers reported being told that they would have to get cash out of nearby card machines to pay for shopping. 

A sign in a Waitrose in Petersfield was pictured saying the store was cash only as all “card readers have failed”, with an apology for any inconvenience caused. A local radio station reported that queues had formed at an ATM round the corner as shoppers tried to get their hands on bank notes. 

The issues are understood to be linked to the worldwide IT outages that affected the NHS, global airports, banks and broadcasters on Friday. 

Politicians, aides and others in the centre of power were also being told to use cash for their food and coffees on Friday morning as news of the outage spread. 

Theatre fans may also face issues as the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company have told customers they cannot book tickets online. The Old Vic and Young Vic theatres were also experiencing issues.

Waterstones in Falkirk, Scotland, is only accepting cash according to its X account, but the bookshop chain has said the issues have not impacted all of its stores. A spokesman said: “Card payments will not work only if the bank of the customer is impacted. Otherwise, they will work. Obviously, we accept cash and gift cards as normal. Waterstones.com and all our online options work as normal.”

Wetherspoons and Co-op are also among retailers understood to be affected by the crisis with customers taking to social media to report their frustrations, although the pub chain’s app is now working again. Co-op insisted it had not “experienced any significant impact”. 

Reports online suggest Gail’s Bakery is giving away coffees free in some locations if customers are unable to pay with their cards. 

Other supermarkets including Morrisons also received reports of  issues with contactless payments, before they were resolved. Sainsbury’s, Tesco and M&S are understood to have seen no issues in its stores.

Hopeful visitors to London Zoo and Kew Gardens also risked being denied access, with both attractions only accepting cash or pre-booked tickets until payment systems were back up and running. London Zoo later said issues were resolved.

Smaller businesses including Grimsby Garden Centre and London Fields Lido – an open air swimming pool – have also resorted to only taking cash.

It is not only the UK that has been affected. Self-service machines in Woolworths supermarkets in Australia are not operational and banks in the country are facing transaction delays. 

Pro-cash campaigners were quick to point to the chaos as one of the risks of moving towards a cashless society. Martin Quinn, campaign director at Payment Choice Alliance said: “With IT outages happening now at alarming regularity, businesses should be mindful of only taking card payments. However many supermarkets prefer to have self-service card only tills, which makes cash users feel like second-class citizens, a concerted effort is needed to return to using and accepting cash, because cash never crashes.”

It is thought the outage was caused by a software problem with a piece of cyber security technology, called Crowdstrike. The specific piece of technology, Crowdstrike Falcon Sensor, is used to protect against hacking threats, but engineers were quick to blame a problem with the system for causing the massive outage.

George Kurtz, Crowdstrike’s founder and chief executive, said: “CrowdStrike is working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. 

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. 

“We further recommend organisations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”

Nigel Farage has claimed that a mass riot in Leeds represents the “politics of the subcontinent”, prompting a backlash from local Labour MPs.

Violence erupted in the Yorkshire city on Thursday night as locals set a double-decker bus on fire and overturned a police car.

The riot is thought to have broken out after social services took four children away from a family in the inner city area of Harehills at around 5pm on Thursday.

Responding to footage of the unrest, Mr Farage, the Reform UK leader, said: “The politics of the subcontinent are currently playing out on the streets of Leeds. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

His remarks led to demands for an apology from Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley.

“This is a situation you know nothing about and no one has briefed you on,” Mr Sobel said.

“You are inflaming a situation with misinformation. Politicians have a responsibility to not exacerbate situations, particularly with no knowledge of them. I expect you to issue an apology.”

Mr Farage replied: “When will you and the Labour Party apologise for irresponsible mass migration?”

Richard Burgon, the Labour MP for Leeds East, said he had spoken to Harehills residents affected by the “very serious” scenes after returning to his constituency late on Thursday.

“They care passionately about their community,” Mr Burgon wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“They want the disorder to end. They want those pushing misinformation from afar to stop.”

Lee Anderson, the Reform MP for Ashfield, echoed Mr Farage’s argument on Friday morning as he condemned the “disgraceful scenes”.

“Import a third world culture, then you get third world behaviour,” he said.

“These animals need locking up for good. They are a product of our spineless namby-pamby establishment who have betrayed our great country.”

Mr Anderson defected to Reform in March after losing the Tory whip over comments he made about Sadiq Khan, Labour’s Mayor of London.

West Yorkshire Police said the disorder was “instigated by a criminal minority intent on disrupting community relations”, urging residents not to speculate on the cause.

Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said late on Thursday night she was “appalled at the shocking scenes” and attacks on police vehicles and public transport.

Police vans were pelted with rocks and bricks as hundreds of locals clashed with police.

‘Ongoing disturbance’

Social media footage showed rioters smashing the windows of a police car with a pram, rocks and bicycles, before they flipped the vehicle onto its side.

In a separate video widely circulated on TikTok and Facebook, a group of men could be seen setting fire to a large double decker bus using lighters. The vehicle was later seen reduced to a charred wreck.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said on Thursday: “At 5pm [on Thursday], police were called to … an address in Luxor Street, Harehills.

“Officers attended and found an ongoing disturbance which involved some agency workers and some children. More people started to attend the location and a decision was made to remove the agency workers and the children to a safe place.

“A crowd started to gather and more officers were requested to attend the area, where some pockets of disorder were occurring.

“More officers have been deployed to the area to assist with the management of this incident. Some road closures are also being implemented and people are advised to avoid the area at this time.

“No injuries have been reported and enquiries are ongoing at the scene.”

As Donald Trump closed out the Republican National Convention, his family fanned onto the stage behind him.

The Trumps, ever attune to the subtle messaging power of stagecraft, were making a clear statement: politics is a family affair.

Over the four-day convention in Milwaukee, Trump’s two adult sons, Donald Jnr and Eric, and their partners, addressed the party’s officials and grassroots.

The audience at the Fiserv Forum had even heard from the 17-year-old Kai Trump, the eldest of the former president’s 10 grandchildren.

There is a longstanding tradition of politicians being introduced by their family members, but in the case of the Trumps, they are not just central to the Republican presidential candidate’s personal life, but the party he has remade in his image.

Donald Jnr, in particular, has emerged as a nexus of power for the next generation of his father’s “Make America Great Again” (Maga) movement.

The 46-year-old is thought to be the most conservative member of the family, and has taken on the role of anointer and destroyer of GOP politicians, arbitrating their ranking in the eyes of the Maga faithful.

His kingmaker status appears to have been confirmed by the success of his fierce lobbying of his father to select JD Vance as his 2024 running mate.

Donald Jnr’s influence is only likely to increase in a second Trump administration, potentially with an official White House role.

Eric and his wife Lara have also extended their influence over the party in the last year.

Lara, a former TV presenter, began serving at the helm of the Republican national committee earlier this year, with huge sway over the levers of the party machinery.

Both Eric and Lara have echoed the senior Trump’s fiery rhetoric and demonstrated a willingness to attack opponents – a markedly different approach to the other power couple within the family: Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared.

Nicknamed “Javanka” during the first Trump term on account of their influence, the pair occupied senior White House positions and were purportedly moderating voices within the West Wing.

However, both have withdrawn from the political scene since 2021, and have taken no active role in Trump’s re-election bid.

While she appeared on stage behind her father following his keynote address on Thursday night, she declined to address the convention as she did in 2016 and 2020, when she had the prized slot of introducing him.

Similarly, Melania Trump, the former first lady, attended the final night of the convention but did not deliver a speech, in a departure from tradition.

Some have suggested the shift in family dynamic, away from the political involvement of senior Trump women, towards Donald Jnr, Eric and their partners, will remove a restraining force of the first Trump administration.

However, veterans of the first Trump term say that misunderstands the dynamic between the former president, his wife and his eldest daughter.

Former Trump White House staffers described Ivanka’s role in particular as one to inform and support, rather than talk her father out of positions.

Insiders do agree on one thing, regardless of which members might accompany him back to Washington, the next generation of Trumps appears set to extend their influence over the president, and his party, if he wins back the White House in November.