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Harman weighs into Liberty chief 'smears' row
Paul Waugh and Nicholas Cecil20.06.08
Commons leader Harriet Harman today joined in the row over Shami Chakrabarti, saying the civil liberties chief should never have allied herself to David Davis.
Ms Harman also made a strong defence of Culture Secretary Andy Burnham over allegations that he had "smeared" the Liberty director for her links to the ex-Tory MP, who resigned his Commons seat of Haltemprice and Howden - and his post of shadow home secretary - to force a by-election and debate over the Government's 42- day detention rule for terror suspects.
Ms Harman was a former legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties before it renamed itself Liberty. She told ITV News today that Mr Davis's backing for capital punishment made clear he was not a civil libertarian.
"When it comes to David Davis, he's an unlikely champion of civil liberties and certainly when I was at Liberty I did not support people who opposed the Human Rights Act and were in favour of the death penalty," she said. The Standard revealed yesterday that Mr Burnham is being threatened with legal action by Ms Chakrabarti over his remark that she shared "late night, hand-wringing, heart-melting phone calls" with Mr Davis as they campaigned to oppose the Government's anti-terror plans.
Ms Harman said that Mr Burnham had apologised and that should be the end of the matter. Mr Burnham's spokeswoman last night said the Culture Secretary expressed his "regret" for any offence caused, though none had been intended.
But Ms Chakrabarti's office said his response did not go far enough. Her spokeswoman said: "That's not an apology, in her view."
Reader views (1)
Harriet Harman is the last person to lecture anyone over their principles. As a former legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties she should still be defending civil liberties. Instead, she has totally jettisoned the beliefs she espoused in the NCCL, to promote her career in a government that regards civil liberties as expendable.
Whatever David Davis believes on other issues he is going to give us the chance for a public debate on whether Britain wants to keep moving towards a police state system. If Harriet Harman is so keen on the Human Rights Act why has she not spoken out against the Blair / Brown government’s attempts to get the international Human Rights law amended to allow torture in some cases? Why has she not opposed the impending ID system which breaks all 10 principles set in a government review?
Ms Harman has not only reneged on her civil liberties principles, but she has also publicly contradicted herself about other beliefs. During the televised Labour deputy-leadership debate, she agreed with John Cruddas that the government should apologise for taking us into the Iraq War. After she became deputy leader she said the government should not apologise, and she denied ever saying it should. It is typical of this government that she expects millions of viewers to believe her assertions rather than their own ears.
- Stan, Derby, UK
