Blunkett gives Tories terror Bill warning
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Your support makes all the difference.David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is preparing to warn the Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, to bring Tory peers into line if they prevent anti-terror leglislation becoming law before Christmas.
Mr Blunkett is to refuse making major concessions to opponents of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill but he has acknowledged it will have a rocky ride through Parliament. He is frustrated by the efforts of peers to change the legislation and abolish clauses, such as making inciting religious hatred an offence. The House of Lords is poised to deal further defeats on the emergency legislation this week.
Home Office sources said last night they were happy to look at "minor amendments" but were not prepared to make any significant concessions to peers. Lord Rooker, the Home Office minister, is expected to tell the Upper House the Privy Council will re-examine the anti-terrorism provisions after 15 months.
The Government is reluctant to overrule peers by using the Parliament Act to push the Bill through by Christmas. Home Office sources said they would "have a word" with Mr Duncan Smith about why Tory peers opposed to the Bill were blocking, "a vital piece of anti-terrorist legislation which is in the interests of national security".
Mr Duncan Smith has so far been keen to portray himself as a staunch supporter of Tony Blair's Government on the "war against terrorism". However, the Bill, which the Government sought to introduce after the 11 September attacks on the United States, has proved highly controversial.
Itincludes a plan to allow the automatic detention of foreign suspects, but only those accused of attacks overseas and not those believed to be plotting terrorism in Britain. It would also allow Parliament to adopt European Union anti-crime measures by sec-ondary legislation.
Critics are also focusing on powers allowing the Home Secretary to detain suspected terrorists to go unchallenged by judicial review.
* Mr Blair has written to the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to thank them for the part they have played in the fight against terrorism in Britain and abroad. He told the intelligence chiefs their undercover work and surveillance had saved lives and had "played a vital role in bringing about the collapse of the Taliban in key areas".
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