Ministers ‘used police to lobby terror plans’
The government has been accused of politicising the police in its efforts to get controversial anti-terrorism legislation through parliament.
Conservative MP Stephen Dorrell has tabled a motion in the Commons complaining about the involvement of the police in the run-up to Wednesday’s vote on the detention of terror suspects.
He argues that the prominent role played by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) in pressing for plans to give police powers to hold suspects for 90 days without charge amounted to “active lobbying” on the part of the government.
The measure was defeated by a vote of 322 to 291, with MPs opting instead to extend the maximum detention time from its current limit of two weeks to 28 days.
Acpo issued a statement in the wake of the result, saying it was “disappointed” at the way MPs had voted.
“The problem is that it is vital in a democracy that the police enforce the law but are independent of and outside politics and do not engage in the active lobbying for support for a particular measure, which it is now clear did not have majority support in the Commons,” Mr Dorrell told BBC Radio Four’s PM.
“They engaged in lobbying in support of the government’s policy in a way that I think prejudices the important principle that the police stay out of politics.”
According to Mr Dorrell, a number of MPs received written and telephone representation from their chief constables “in remarkably similar terms”, adding that he could “never before remember” a similar situation in his 26 years as an MP.
“The people who should be presenting the arguments in support of the government’s policy are the government,” he said.
His position was supported by Derek Ogg, chairman of Scotland’s Faculty of Advocates’ Criminal Bar Association (FACBA), who told Today that the involvement of police officers in the debate over detention times had been “unconstitutional”.
“Our constitution is made up of conventions and it is completely without precedent for chief constables to become involved in this organised and planned way, to write and telephone individual MPs and campaign for, effectively, this prime minister’s policy on 90 days,” he said.
He admitted that there was “absolutely no question” that police should give advice, but insisted this should be only within their own “area of expertise”.
However, home secretary Charles Clarke has rejected any suggestion that senior police officers were asked to lobby MPs prior to the Commons vote, saying only that they were only offering advice on the issue of detention of terror suspects.
“What police officers did – and I am glad they did – was offer members of parliament the opportunity to discus with the police what the police view was,” he told BBC One’s Six O’Clock News.
“I think that is entirely proper in a democracy. It is right that MPs should listen to their constituents, to particular interests and expertise like the police.”
