Making a last-ditch bid to win a parliamentary vote on holding terror suspects for up to three months without charge, British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday said two terrorist plots had been foiled since July’s attacks in London.
Two of his Cabinet ministers were summoned home from overseas to bolster the government’s chances of winning a parliamentary vote on the plans, despite heavy opposition from both inside and outside the ruling Labour Party.
Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency quoted sources as saying government whips did not expect to have enough votes to pass the detention proposal, and were braced for a defeat.
A rejection of the plan, which is contained in the Terrorism Bill drafted in the wake of the July 7 bombings, would be Blair’s first legislative defeat since he came to power in 1997.
British media say such a defeat would raise further questions about his authority in a week following the resignation of a key ally, David Blunkett, and infighting over measures to ban smoking in public places.
”Let’s send out a signal from this house that when it comes to defeating terrorism we are going to give the police the powers they need and back them,” Blair told the House of Commons ahead of the vote.
A series of votes on the measures were scheduled later on Wednesday, with the first expected at about 4.30pm GMT, Sky News television channel reported.
The legislation also calls for a ban on those who glorify terrorism, sell extremist books, receive or provide terrorist training, or prepare to commit attacks.
The proposal to make it a crime to encourage terrorism barely passed in Commons debate last week.
The longer detentions would help police glean more evidence, build stronger cases and ”may be the crucial difference in saving this country from terrorist acts”, the prime minister said.
Police called for longer powers of detention following the bombings because of wider use of encrypted computers, as well as language difficulties inherent in combating international terrorist networks.
‘Unprecedented danger’
In the context of his new appeals, Blair said the country was faced with an unprecedented danger of mass casualties, a darker threat than the attacks carried out by the Irish Republican Army in the three previous decades.
Since the attacks on July 7 by four presumed Muslim suicide bombers who killed themselves and 52 commuters in London, the threat of more attacks still looms, he warned.
”In the last week, we have learned that since the 7th of July, two further terrorist plots have been prevented in this country,” Blair told lawmakers without elaborating.
Blair faced a rebellion last week by Labour lawmakers seeking to set the detention period at 28 days. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition parties as well as human rights groups have also denounced the detention plans.
As a sop to critics, Blair’s interior minister Charles Clarke has proffered a ”sunset clause” that would see the legislation expiring in 12 months unless renewed by lawmakers.
Clarke also offered the stipulation that a suspect’s detention would be reviewed by a high-court judge every seven days and a code of practice to govern the treatment of those held.
To ensure the votes necessary for the legislation, the government recalled Foreign Secretary Jack Straw from Russia and Finance Minister Gordon Brown from Israel.
Defence Secretary John Reid was returning from a visit to the United States in time to vote for the law, though a defence ministry spokesperson said his trip had not been cut short. — Sapa-AFP