MI5 drawn into detention bid row

12 April 2012

MI5 has been drawn into the storm over Gordon Brown's plans to extend the pre-charge detention of terrorist suspects on the eve of a knife-edge Commons vote.

Its Director General Jonathan Evans took the rare step of issuing a public statement clarifying the security service's position on the issue after reports over the weekend claimed it did not support the extension to 42 days.

Meanwhile, in an indication of Government nervousness over Wednesday's vote, Foreign Secretary David Miliband was flying back to Britain after cutting short a visit to Israel in order to bolster the Government's support.

In the statement, posted on Monday night on the MI5 website, Mr Evans made clear that the service had not taken a position on the 42-day issue as it was not responsible for bringing prosecutions.

"Since the security service is neither a prosecuting authority nor responsible for criminal investigations, we are not, and never have been, the appropriate body to advise the Government on pre-charge detention limits," he said.

"We have not, therefore, sought to comment publicly or privately on the current proposals, except to say that we recognise the challenge posed for the police service by the increasingly complex and international character of some recent terrorist cases."

With the two-day Commons debate on the Counter-Terrorism Bill due to start, there were signs that opposition among Labour rebels was hardening ahead of the crucial vote on Wednesday.

With both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats opposed to the extension, Downing Street has admitted that the parliamentary arithmetic is looking "very, very tight".

In the end it could come down to the votes of nine Democratic Unionist (DUP) MPs, who have yet to decide which way they will vote.

If they vote for the 42-day extension, it would probably need around 50 Labour rebels to defeat the Government, but if they vote against the number of Labour rebels needed to defeat the Government could come down to around 35.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in