Anti-terror law changes are just a 'con', say opposition MPs

Jacqui Smith was last night accused of offering "cons" rather than concessions as she outlined plans to win over Labour rebels over 42- day detention without charge.

Opposition MPs and civil liberties campaigners said the amendments to flagship anti-terror laws amounted to little more than tinkering.

Sir Ken Macdonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, is among senior legal figures who have dismissed the need for any extension of the 28-day limit.

But there were signs that Labour MPs reluctant to land a potentially fatal blow to the battered Prime Minister by delivering his first Commons defeat were being brought on-side.

Gordon Brown was said to have personally telephoned key rebels in a bid to avert defeat.

The Prime Minister is understood to have outlined concessions and appealed to MPs not to inflict further damage on the Government after a series of election disasters and policy U-turns.

Under long-awaited changes to the Counter-Terrorism Bill, Home Secretary Miss Smith revealed the power to detain suspects without charge would only be used in the face of a "grave, exceptional terrorist threat" to Britain.

MPs would also be asked to approve cases within a week of an order from the Home Secretary, rather than a month as initially proposed.

Miss Smith said: "Any Home Secretary using these powers will want to think very, very carefully about how they are going to explain it to Parliament."

However a "grave, exceptional terrorist threat" could include an event or a threat outside the UK.

It could also involve "damage to property" and "planning or preparation" for terrorist acts.

Conservative leader David Cameron said his party would continue to oppose the Bill.

"One minute the Prime Minister says he is standing firm and he's sticking to his guns and the next minute, it's headlong retreat and concessions," he said.

"If the Government really came to us with evidence and said 'look, we need to hold people for longer, here's the evidence, here's the Director of Public Prosecutions, here's the Attorney General, here are all these people saying we need to do this', of course we would engage with them.

"But what we have heard over the last few months is a succession of people saying that there isn't the evidence, it isn't necessary to hold people for longer, and that's why we won't support the Government."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Jacqui Smith's so- called key concession is a con.

"All she has to do is to tell Parliament that there is a grave and exceptional terrorist threat, and she will be entitled to go ahead without even considering whether the proposals are proportionate to the problem."

And director of civil rights group Liberty Shami Chakrabarti said the amended Bill granted "sweeping, unnecessary and counterproductive powers".