New move to abolish the law of blasphemy

A Labour MP is to take up his father's Bill to abolish the law of blasphemy amid growing unease about the Government's plans to make incitement to religious hatred a criminal offence for the first time.

John Cryer, the Labour MP for Hornchurch, told The Independent on Sunday he intends to take up the Bill his father – the former MP for Bradford – introduced in Parliament in 1990.

Bob Cryer attempted to abolish the blasphemy laws after the controversy over Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses but failed through lack of Parliamentary time.

Demands for a fresh attempt to repeal the three-centuries-old blasphemy laws have been sparked by the controversy surrounding the emergency package of counter terrorism laws proposed last week by David Blunkett.

The Home Secretary said he was holding in reserve the possibility of introducing internment "if a major crisis arose from the terrorist threat". He confirmed he would be making incitement to racial hatred an offence, as first disclosed in an interview for the IoS.

Mr Blunkett told MPs: "Racists, bigots and hotheads, and those associating with terrorists, are prepared to use the opportunity to stir up hate. It is therefore my intention to introduce new laws to ensure that incitement to religious, as well as racial, hatred will become a criminal offence."

The comic actor Rowan Atkinson warned that that such a Bill could undermine freedom of speech. Labour MPs believe an offence of inciting religious hatred, which will carry a penalty of up to seven years imprisonment, could have been used to convict Salman Rushdie.

Mr Blunkett is taking the unusual step of using retrospective legislation to enforce the new tougher penalty of seven years imprisonment following a spate of anthrax hoaxes which brought chaos to offices across Britain.

The higher penalty will apply to anyone found guilty of causing a hoax with chemical, nuclear, radioactive or biological weapons. The penalty for bomb hoaxes was raised to seven years in 1991.

"Those who perpetrate these hoaxes not only create fear and inconvenience, but they also put at risk secure testing facilities," said Tony Blair's official spokesman.