Anti-terror law changes 'shameful'

Legal changes that would make it easier to convict terror suspects have been branded "shameful" by a Labour peer.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said suspects should be locked up on the basis of intelligence given in secret trials.

And he said the threat is now so great the burden of proof should be reduced from beyond reasonable doubt to the balance of probabilities.

Mr Blunkett's proposals came as the Government faced calls for an inquiry over intelligence in Iraq and questions were raised about information on threats to flights.

Baroness Kennedy QC has joined the chorus of condemnation from civil rights campaigners.

The lawyer, who was appointed a peer by Prime Minister Tony Blair, compared Mr Blunkett to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe.

"He really is a shameless authoritarian," she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. I think we can be confident that many of his colleagues in the Cabinet, including particularly the Attorney General, will sit on this, because it really is an affront to the rule of law."

The Home Secretary's call for a debate on the issue was "a classic Blunkett tactic", added Lady Kennedy.

"You suggest all kinds of outrageous and awful things because then you get away with half of them," she said. "You set people up for something awful and then they are relieved when they don't get the worst possible scenario. But all of this is terrible and even half of it would be a disgrace."

It was particularly untimely to propose convicting people on the basis of intelligence material at a time when the intelligence services were coming under criticism for their failures in Iraq, she added.

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