Blair appeals for 'sense' and offers Terror Bill review

As the Government's anti-terrorism bill rebounded along the corridors of power on Friday, a number of terror suspects walked free as the constitutional crisis over the legislation went unresolved on Friday.

However, by late Friday afternoon the Prime Minister had appealed for a solution and appeared to be ready to concede a review of the legislation contained in the Bill in a year. Though he denied that this went as far as the "sunset" clause demanded by the Bill's detractors and said that this was the government’s final concession in relation to the Bill.

Earlier on Friday, the House of Lords had again rejected the government’s proposed Bill by 176 votes to 128 backing an amendment tabled by the Liberal Democrats to increase the burden of proof needed to detain suspects.

But the Prime Minister remained adamant that the security services need the powers contained in the Bill to combat the threat posed by global terrorists. While their Lordships agree with this in principle, they nonetheless voted 194 to 123 in favour of placing a "sunset" clause into the Bill which would mean that it will expire after 12 months.

The constitutional impasse and continuing extraordinary scenes today have left many MPs outraged that such an important bill from the elected House can be delayed in such a fashion.

The anti-terrorism Bill must be dealt with in the House of Commons in one hour under "guillotine" rules and this has seen both Houses sit in session for over 24 hours in entrenched positions.

By Friday afternoon eight foreign detainees were released from Belmarsh prison on conditional bail when the current legislation enabling them to be held in custody without trial expired. Some of the detainees have been held in prison for three years.

Earlier today, Mr Blair said that he was being neither arrogant nor dismissive of the civil rights of the British people in seeking to get the Bill passed.

The Prime Minister had indicated that he did not want to "send a signal of weakness" that at some time in the future the legislation would expire.

Conservative leader Michael Howard has described the Bill as "full of imperfections" and said that terror suspects should be sent to trial and dealt with by due judicial process.

Liberal Democrats have called for Mr Blair to act responsibly and hold cross-party talks aimed at reaching a compromise position on the proposed Bill.

With the Parliamentary clock effectively stopped as of Thursday, unless a deal on this Bill is brokered it could be a particularly long week for the nation's politicians.

(SP)