Government to press ahead with plans for 42-day terror suspect detention

By Rich Bowden, M&C Staff Writer Jan 18, 2008, 11:09 GMT

(files) A July 6 2005 file photo of British Labour party member of parliament Jacqui Smith. The government is to ignore criticism of its proposal to increase the time terror suspects can be locked up and will press ahead with the plans to detain suspects for up to 42 days. EPA/STEPHEN POND

(M&C) - The government is to ignore criticism of its proposal to increase the time terror suspects can be locked up and will press ahead with the plans to detain suspects for up to 42 days.

The Independent reports up to 40 Labour MPs have expressed their opposition to the proposed legislation meaning the prime minister's intransigence on the issue could bring the Brown government its first parliamentary defeat.

The newspaper says Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will launch an all out assault next week to bring recalcitrant Labour MPs round. Ms Smith will argue that the extension in time allowed for the detention of terror suspects is essential because of the changing nature of the modern terrorist threat.

However the bill has generated considerable opposition both inside and outside Parliament. Gareth Crossman, the policy director of the pressure group Liberty, said: "The Government can sugar-coat these proposals but, in the end, extending pre-charge detention limits beyond 28 days is dangerously counter-productive and will damage relations between the police and minority communities."

"The bells and whistles of supposed judicial and parliamentary safeguards should not sway the real and reasonable consensus against the proposed42-day detention periods," he said.