Brown to seek longer detention without charge

Tania Branigan
Monday June 4, 2007
The Guardian

Gordon Brown insisted yesterday that he would not put civil liberties at risk despite signalling his determination to match Tony Blair’s hardline stance on countering terrorism with a series of controversial new measures.Parts of the proposals will be laid out in detail on Thursday, when the outgoing home secretary, John Reid, announces a consultation on the terrorism bill due this autumn. They include detaining suspects for more than four weeks without charge, allowing questioning after charge and the use of intercept evidence.

Speaking at a Labour hustings in Newcastle, he said he was ready to be “tough in the security measures that are necessary to prevent terrorist incidents in this country”. But he said he would protect civil liberties. “There has got to be independent judicial oversight. There has got to be proper parliamentary accountability.”

Mr Brown, who will today speak at a conference on Islam and Muslims in the World, said: “We cannot win this [battle against terrorism] militarily or by policing or intelligence alone; we will need to engage people so that we can win the battle of hearts and minds. What we’ve got to do is not too dissimilar to the cold war in the 1950s and 60s - we’ve got to show people that we stand for freedom and democracy and the dignity of the individual, and reach out to all those members of other faith communities … so together we can isolate those people who are preaching extremist ideas.”

As part of his proposals to counter terrorism he is also planning to hold cross-party talks in the privy council on the use of phone-tap evidence in court. The security services have resisted such a change because they fear it will expose their surveillance methods.

The plan to detain suspects for more than four weeks is a controversial one. The government suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of rebel backbenchers in 2005 when it tried to extend the detention period to 90 days, and was forced to compromise on 28 days. Senior Labour MPs, including the deputy leadership candidate Harriet Harman, said compelling evidence would be needed to push through another extension.

The civil rights campaign Liberty warned that an extension to three months would amount to internment. Mr Brown, who will become prime minister on June 27, is also proposing to make support for terrorism an aggravating factor when judges pass sentence for other crimes.

But David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: “It is extraordinary that the chancellor has chosen to publicise these proposals five days before John Reid announces his counter-terrorism plans in parliament. It does not augur well for cross-party attempts to build a consensus for the new counter-terrorism measures the whole country needs to get behind.”

A source close to Mr Reid said: “Things obviously get discussed at the highest level in government. I wouldn’t expect too many differences [in the proposals].”

The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Nick Clegg, said: “At least [Mr Brown] appears a little more concerned about parliamentary accountability than his predecessor. It remains to be seen whether this is a procedural fig-leaf for more authoritarian measures or part of a genuine shift in guaranteeing, and not undermining, our civil liberties.”

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights campaign Liberty, said the organisation had supported the use of intercept evidence and post-charge questioning as alternatives to extending detention before charge, not in addition to it. “Twenty-eight days is already the longest period to hold a person without charge in the free world,” she said. “If you go beyond 28 days it is internment.”

Writing in the Sunday Times, the Tory leader, David Cameron said: “A serious, long-term approach to this challenge cannot rest on a security response alone. We have to recognise the depth of the alienation felt by many Muslims in Britain today.”

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