FURTHER humiliation was heaped on David Blunkett yesterday as the Law Lords dealt a shattering blow to the government’s anti-terrorist strategy.
They ruled that foreign terror suspects cannot be detained indefinitely without trial, presenting Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and Charles Clarke, the new Home Secretary, with a massive problem the morning after Mr Blunkett resigned.
The lates
t crisis for Mr Blair emerged as the row over Mr Blunkett’s resignation deepened, with allegations from the Conservatives of a Home Office "cover-up".
David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, has written to Sir Alan Budd, the man carrying out an official investigation into the affair, asking how so many Home Office officials could have forgotten about the "killer e-mail" which showed that a visa application for the nanny of Mr Blunkett’s former lover, Kimberly Quinn, had been fast-tracked.
Mr Davis said it "stretched credulity" that Mr Blunkett, famous for his brilliant memory, and his senior civil servants could have forgotten key pieces of evidence.
Alan Milburn, Labour’s election co-ordinator, accepted that this aspect needed to be examined by Sir Alan.
Mr Davis asked Sir Alan to say in his report, expected next week, whether any documents were missing or destroyed. He also wants to know if there had been any forensic checks of computers to ascertain whether documents or e-mails had been deleted and whether there were any discrepancies in the evidence of those interviewed twice.
In yesterday’s judgment, the Law Lords ruled eight to one that the human rights of foreign suspects held for up to three years without charge or trial had been breached, severely undermining a central plank of Labour’s security-based general election strategy. It also delivered a blow to Mr Blunkett’s legacy.
He had brushed aside protests from civil liberties groups to rush the law through Parliament in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks in the United States. He claimed that their "airy-fairy, libertarian" view did not match the harsh reality, adding that he "didn’t give a damn" how many foreign suspects were detained.
Mr Clarke had barely got his feet under the desk at Queen Anne’s Gate before the Law Lords’ ruling that indefinite detention of foreign nationals without trial contravened human rights laws.
In an overwhelming condemnation of Mr Blunkett’s Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, they said that indefinite detention of foreign nationals without trial was unacceptable.
One law lord described the legislation as a "Draconian" measure. Lord Hoffmann went so far as to suggest that the act itself was a bigger threat to the country than terrorism.
Mr Clarke was defiant and said the nine detainees who took their case to the House of Lords, the highest court in the land, would remain in London’s Belmarsh prison.
He said: "My primary role as Home Secretary is to protect national security and to ensure the safety and security of this country."
Mr Clarke said he would be asking Parliament to renew the legislation in the new year and, in the meantime, the government would be studying the judgment care fully to see whether it was possible to modify the legislation "to address the concerns raised by the House of Lords".
"It is ultimately for parliament to decide whether and how we should amend the law," he said, stressing that the internment provisions would remain in force until Parliament agreed the future of the law.
"I will not be revoking the certificates or releasing the detainees, whom I have reason to believe are a significant threat to our security," he said.
Lawyers and civil rights groups said that, although the Law Lords had no powers to strike out the act, their ruling in favour of the nine detainees held for long periods on suspicion of links with terrorism, left the government in an impossible situation.
