Cameron criticises government on tackling extremism

Conservative leader David Cameron has warned that the government is not doing enough to tackle Islamic extremism.

Mr Cameron criticised Labour for "a series of failings on national security" and described the recent alleged terror plot by "alleged British-born Islamist terrorists" to blow up passenger jets flying from UK airports as "deeply shocking", but "not surprising".

Speaking at a Westminster press conference, Mr Cameron said: "I do not believe that the government is doing enough to fight Islamist extremism at home, or to protect our security."

The Conservative leader called for more investment in policing and security measures, backed by more rigorous enforcement of the law to ensure that terrorist suspects and their supporters are prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned or deported.

Mr Cameron said: "The government have done things they should not have done - like freeze the Home Office Budget for three years. There are things they have not done which they must do - like making intercept evidence available in court. And there are things they said they would do which they not done - like following though on the Prime Minster's twelve point security plan and recommendations on community cohesion."

However, the Home Office said that spending would have risen by 75% in real terms by the start of 2007 and that the long-term funding arrangement with the Treasury locked in those levels of spending until 2010 - 2011.

Mr Cameron said: "We must invest in our own police and security services to ensure we are doing all we can to prevent any future atrocities. We must enforce our existing laws and strengthen them where necessary, so suspected terrorists, and those that incite them, are prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned - or when appropriate, deported. And we must build the fabric of our own society so we can confront and defeat the twisted ideology that is perverting the minds of the potential terrorists.

"There are individuals, including some in our own society, who want to murder as many innocent people as possible in the most dramatic way possible, while killing themselves at the same time. They are driven not by poverty, nor by some specific or legitimate grievance, but by a twisted and perverted ideology. Our response must be urgent, it must be practical and it must be comprehensive."

(KMcA)