Britain: Tony Blair set the scene for a potential election showdown over national security issues yesterday when he rejected compromise proposals and defied the Conservatives over his controversial anti-terrorist Bill.
During bitter exchanges in the Commons, the prime minister taunted Michael Howard that he would be happy to have the British people vote on the issue. Mr Blair was reacting to a pre-emptive strike in which the Conservative leader said he had concluded that Mr Blair actually wanted the Bill to fail so that he could "pretend that he is the only one who is tough on terrorism".
The fate of the Bill - which would allow British and foreign terror suspects to be subject to a range of control orders up to and including house arrest - could be determined today in the House of Lords.
A series of concessions by the government allowing judicial involvement across the range of proposed control orders reduced the threatened second rebellion by Labour MPs. This ensured the Bill's survival through a series of Commons votes last night in which the government successfully overturned key Lords' amendments.
However, Lord Strathclyde, the Conservative leader in the Lords, guaranteed another 24 hours of political hardball, insisting they would not back down unless the government gave way on their demands for a higher burden of evidence to justify control orders, and for a "sunset clause" which would see the new law expire at the end of November.
The Lords backed these Conservative-sponsored proposals by a massive 187 majority on Tuesday.
However, Mr Blair flatly rejected both during question time in the Commons, saying to do otherwise would require him to disregard the express advice of the police and security services. No 10 Downing Street maintained last night that defeat for the Bill would mean the early release on to the streets of the 11 foreign terror suspects currently detained without trial, under legislation ruled discriminatory and unlawful by the Law Lords which expires next Monday.
Mr Howard has offered to support the Bill provided the government accepts the sunset clause enabling proper parliamentary consideration of the issue afresh after the general election or, alternatively, to agree the renewal of the existing detention powers for a limited time.
He asked if Mr Blair would seriously prefer having no Bill as opposed to one which would hold for eight months.
But Mr Blair told him he rejected the sunset clause because "it is important we send a clear signal that this legislation is on the statute book and will remain on the statute book". This prompted a furious denunciation from Mr Howard who told the House: "I have come to the conclusion that this prime minister wants this Bill to fail. He wants to pretend that he is the only one who is tough on terrorism. Isn't it a dreadful measure from a desperate prime minister and shouldn't he be thoroughly ashamed of himself?"
In a reply confirming that he might indeed be happy to have the issue feature in the forthcoming election campaign, Mr Blair retorted: "We will have this debate here and we will have this debate in the country and we will see where the shame lies. But in my judgment it will lie with the Conservative Party, which, faced with legislation to prevent terrorism, are going to vote against it."
However, that prompted Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy to suggest it was time Mr Blair put the liberties of the British people before his "political pride".