Blair's anti-terror Bill was 'an election ploy'

Telegraph

Originally Posted by :
Tony Blair was accused last night of using terrorist control orders as a "cynical election ploy" after it emerged that they had yet to be extended to any new suspects.

Despite a marathon battle over the measure on the eve of the general election campaign, only 11 orders have been imposed - and they apply just to the foreign terrorist suspects who were previously in jail.

When the Prevention of Terrorism Act was going through Parliament, Mr Blair claimed that the orders were needed because "several hundred" active terrorists were plotting or threatening an attack in Britain, yet they fell outside the existing powers of the police and courts to prosecute them.

But in a progress report yesterday, Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said he had made 11 orders since the Act was passed and each was in respect of individuals who had already been "certified" under 2001 legislation that was subsequently ruled discriminatory by the law lords.

The control order legislation triggered one of the fiercest battles of the last parliament, prompting dozens of Labour backbenchers to rebel and leading to a series of defeats for the Government in the House of Lords.

For the first time, it gave the Home Secretary the power to restrict the movements of British subjects, up to and including house arrest, although its most draconian provisions have yet to be used. The Tories said the measure suspended habeas corpus and the presumption of innocence in British law.

Although the Government made a series of concessions to get the Bill through before the election, Mr Clarke eventually won the power to impose the orders on "reasonable suspicion", subject to judicial review within seven days.

Opponents said existing laws should be used more vigorously to fight terrorism and anyone suspected of plotting should be prosecuted. The Government argued that the threat was so severe that the additional powers were essential but in view of the fact they have hardly been used, opposition MPs now question the motives behind the Act.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow attorney general, said: "This appears to confirm our suspicion that the anti-terror Bill before the election was a cynical election ploy rather than a genuine attempt to protect the British people."

He added: "What has happened to the hundreds of terrorists that the Prime Minister identified? Mr Blair has cried wolf a number of times in the past few years. One day the wolf will arrive, and no one will respond until it is too late."

Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "During the terrorism debate and before the election, we were told control orders were needed for maybe up to hundreds of terror suspects. These figure show that at best the Prime Minister's intelligence was wrong; at worst, he was scaremongering."

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I drew attention to precisely this fact in the Evening Standard letters page (and was remarkably allowed a UKIP tag to go with it) at the time the Bill was going through Parliament. John Stevens had said that "If you had been privy to the terrorist information going across my desk during my latter days in office, it would have made your hair stand on end." He 'confirmed' that about 200 terrorists had been identified & were on the loose in mainland Britain. Information like this would have been manna in the days of the IRA's heyday; squads dealing exclusively in surveillance would have been tasked to keep tabs on the suspects until sufficient evidence (or not) had been accumulated and arrests would follow. This appears to not now be the case with a consequent risk to all and sundry; the Met have higher priorities in their diversity, equality and gender policies.

[Rep]