Government defeated in the Lords on control orders
The Government has suffered a major defeat in its efforts to get the anti-terror bill through the House of Lords.
Peers voted 249 to 119 to amend the bill so that all terror control orders are made by the courts, rather than ministers.
The majority of 130 is one of the highest ever to have come from the Lords against the ruling government.
With the Government ruling out any further substantial concessions and the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives remaining unhappy over key clauses, the scene was always set for a major showdown and so it turned out.
The Government wants to introduce new legislation to allow terrorist suspects to be placed under a series of control orders, culminating in house arrest for the most serious cases. It hopes to get the legislation through by March 14, when the current anti-terror legislation expires.
The bill scraped through the Commons by 14 votes last week and continues its passage through the Lords today and tomorrow. Labour does not have an overall majority in the Lords.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has already said he would accept a judge, rather than a politician, making the initial decision to place an individual under house arrest, but has resisted attempts to extend this provision to the other less stringent control measures.
But the Conservatives remain angry at the speed the Government is trying to pass the bill and insist that their proposals for a sunset clause on the measures and the introduction of intercept evidence have been unreasonably rejected.
The Liberal Democrats believe that the plans infringe basic civil liberties – such as the right to trial – and are calling for much greater judicial oversight.
The situation has further been inflamed by an article written by former Metropolitan police commissioner Lord Stevens that claimed that as many as 200 Al-Qaeda terrorists are operating in the UK, “waiting to kill and be killed in their awful, misguided cause”.
Writing in the News of the World, Lord Stevens said people who opposed the tough measures failed to grasp “the brutal reality of the world we live in and the true horror of the terrorism we face”.
And he said any delay in passing the terrorism bill would “only give comfort to the terrorists in our midst waiting to attack us”.
Speaking yesterday on ITV1’s Dimbleby programme, Health Secretary John Reid ruled out any further major concessions, insisting that the prevention of terrorism bill was necessary for the safety of Britain.
“I do not think there will be any further major concessions because we have to protect people in this country and the other parties have quite frankly to make their mind up and explain their position to the people of this country,” he said.
