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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Clegg attacks 'surveillance' UK | Clegg attacks 'surveillance' UK |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has accused Gordon Brown of turning Britain into a "surveillance state" during prime minister's questions in the Commons. | |
| He also urged an end to the "scandalous fingerprinting" of children at schools and the removal of more than a million innocent people from the DNA database. | He also urged an end to the "scandalous fingerprinting" of children at schools and the removal of more than a million innocent people from the DNA database. |
| Mr Brown, who earlier promised a quick report on the MP bugging row responded by asking if the Lib Dems backed CCTV. | Mr Brown, who earlier promised a quick report on the MP bugging row responded by asking if the Lib Dems backed CCTV. |
| He added: "We are taking the steps to protect the liberties of citizens." | He added: "We are taking the steps to protect the liberties of citizens." |
| Mr Clegg told the prime minister controversy surrounding the bugging of Labour MP Sadiq Khan, on a prison visit to a constituent, "shouldn't come as a surprise to you". | |
| 'Urgent' security needs | |
| "After all, it is this government that has turned the British public into the most spied up on the planet - 1,000 surveillance requests every day, one million innocent people on the DNA database and 5,000 schools now fingerprinting our children," he said. | |
| "Is that what you meant when you spoke so stirringly a few months ago about the great British tradition of liberty?" | |
| You seem to see no limits - you are creating a surveillance state Nick CleggLib Dem leader | |
| Mr Brown hit back: "I take it you and your Liberal authorities support CCTV? | |
| "I take it they support the action taken on intercepts when it is necessary to do so for national security? | |
| "I take it that you accept that only 1,500 intercepts have been commissioned by ministers as a result of urgent security needs?" | |
| Mr Clegg said Mr Brown did not seem to see any limits. "You are creating a surveillance state," he said. | |
| He asked why he had "consistently refused" to give the information commissioner more power. | |
| Protection | |
| Mr Brown said he hoped the Lib Dem leader had looked at the protections that had been put in place where surveillance and intercepts are involved. | |
| "That includes authorisation by a senior officer, the right to appeal to an independent tribunal, a commissioner for surveillance who looks at matters and reports annually," he said. | |
| "We are taking the steps to protect the liberties of citizens - I hope you will support that." | |
| During the weekly questions Mr Brown also came under fire from Conservative leader David Cameron for not taking decisions. | During the weekly questions Mr Brown also came under fire from Conservative leader David Cameron for not taking decisions. |
| Mr Cameron said Mr Brown had set up 52 policy reviews since becoming prime minister last summer when, he said, what people wanted was decisions. | Mr Cameron said Mr Brown had set up 52 policy reviews since becoming prime minister last summer when, he said, what people wanted was decisions. |
| Mr Brown defended the setting up of reviews, saying that there were so many because his government were to make the changes the UK needed for the long-term. | Mr Brown defended the setting up of reviews, saying that there were so many because his government were to make the changes the UK needed for the long-term. |