Former MI5 chief calls 42-day Bill ‘unworkable’

by Dave Keating | July 9, 2008 at 03:12 am | 87 views | add comment

It is extreemly rare for a former MI5 chief (The UK's equivalent of the CIA) to speak in public on camera about anything. Baroness Manningham-Buller's speech yesterday in the House of Lords was therefor quite surprising, and could mean that the house could vote down Gordon Brown's legislation that would increase the number of days terror suspects can be held without charge to 42 days.

THE former head of MI5 said last night she could not support Government proposals to hold terror suspects without charge for up to 42 days.

Baroness Manningham-Buller told the Lords the plans were not “workable”.

She was making her maiden speech in the debate on the Counter-Terrorism Bill after taking her seat in the Lords last week.

Disregarding the convention that maiden speeches should be uncontroversial, she told peers: “On a matter of principle, I cannot support the 42-day pre-charge detention in this Bill.”

She added: “I don’t see on a practical basis, as well as a principled one, that these proposals are in any way workable.”