British Ministers moved tonight to overturn a string of defeats inflicted in the Lords over emergency powers to combat terrorism.
MPs have just five hours to reverse defeats over key sections of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill.
Home Secretary Mr David Blunkett is still intent on getting the Bill through both Houses of Parliament by late tomorrow night and have the emergency powers in place before Christmas.
The new powers were proposed after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11th.
But they have faced concerted attacks from Tories, Liberal Democrats and some Labour backbenchers, who have warned against acting too hastily and bringing in measures that go wide of the anti-terrorism campaign.
Mr Blunkett wants to reinstate the offence of incitement to religious hatred, stripped out of the Bill by peers, and remove so called "sunset" provisions.
As debate got underway on the first group of amendments, dealing with the disclosure of information between agencies and police, Mr Blunkett said he had sought to meet the genuine concerns of the Lords.
But he insisted that no one would understand, if ministers failed to take the necessary action to deal with terrorism in the future.
Peers backed five separate amendments in a bid to restrict police powers to investigate personal tax and data solely to the pursuit of terrorists and defence of national security.
Urging MPs to overturn these defeats, Mr Blunkett warned they would hinder the relevant bodies from going about their work properly and said the interchange of information was vital to combat terrorism.
He said the Human Rights Act would protect people from "unjustifiable intrusion" and ensure that the agencies acted with "proportionality" to the suspicion.
The debate came after the Prime Minister, at question time earlier, urged MPs from all parties to back the emergency legislation and ensure it was swiftly enacted.
PA
