Blair to push for cross-party consensus on anti-terror laws
The prime minister and home secretary Charles Clarke are to hold a series of summits to find a new cross-party consensus on anti-terror laws.
Downing Street announced Mr Clarke is to review the existing powers of exclusion and deportation, including the right to ban visitors to the UK who are likely to incite terrorism.
Talks will be held at No 10 next Thursday with senior members of the intelligence services and police officers.
Mr Blair’s official spokesman said: “We stand ready to give the police and the security services any powers they need as a result of this atrocity and the investigation into it.”
Tony Blair and Mr Clarke will meet Liberal Democrat and Conservative counterparts on Monday to spell out the proposals set to feature in forthcoming anti-terror legislation.
Mr Blair will also seek the counsel of Muslim community leaders at the meeting.
The prime minister is scheduled to debrief Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy and Tory leader Michael Howard the week after next to win a support for possible changes to the law.
Mr Howard said he hoped to reach a “genuine consensus” on how best to respond to the July 7th London attacks.
Parliament is due to rise next Thursday for the summer recess, and will not return until after the party conference season on October 10th.
Meanwhile, Downing Street has published a list of “significant terrorist attacks” linked to al-Qaida since the first bombing of the World Trade Centre in 1993.
“Virtually from 1993 onwards, and the attack on the World Trade Centre then, I think people are able to see this is a process that now stretches back many years. It encompasses many different countries. It has had thousands of people as victims,” Mr Blair has said.
Pundits claimed the list was prepared to press home the point that the London bombings were not directly caused by the war in Afghanistan and Britain’s decision to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the US during the Iraq war.
