THE Government made last-minute concessions over its identity card legislation last night as Tony Blair desperately tried to avoid a series of Commons defeats next week.
Mr Blair will play the terrorism card today as he tries to persuade Labour rebels and the Conservatives to back the identity cards Bill and anti-terrorism measures. Mr Blair will tell the Labour Party spring conference in Blackpool that security is as important to Labour as creating a fairer society.
Last night Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, tabled amendments making a new Bill necessary before ID cards become compulsory. He has also accepted an amendment tabled by Frank Dobson requiring ministers to report to Parliament every six months on the scheme’s cost.
Today Mr Blair will try to put the Conservatives on the spot by telling the Blackpool gathering that Labour’s measures, both on ID cards, to be debated next Monday, and the attempt next Wednesday to introduce an offence of glorifying terrorism, should command the support of all parties that claim to be “moderate and reasonable”.
That will infuriate the Tories and be seen as an attack on the House of Lords, whose amendments he is trying to reverse. His remarks will raise the political temperature after Mr Clarke accused the Tories of weakening the battle against terrorism by opposing the creation of an offence of glorifying terrorist acts. Mr Blair will say: “Once we understand that providing security is our duty we see that to try and fight the security threats of the 21st century without the laws and resources needed would be an abrogation of that duty.” He will accuse the Lords of being “out of touch with the instincts of the public and the advice of professionals”.
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Mr Clarke rejected calls for a judicial inquiry into why Abu Hamza al-Masri had not been brought to justice sooner. It has today emerged that the cleric had a passport in an assumed name when he was arrested seven years ago in connection with terrorist offences.
Mr Clarke said that the issue was “to make sure we give confidence on convictions”. The Opposition could do that by backing the move to outlaw the glorification of terrorism.
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said it was ludicrous to suggest that the Tories were soft on terrorism and, referring to the 1984 Brighton bomb, said: “We are a party that lost people to terrorism.”
The Times has learnt that a British passport in the name of Adam Ramsey Eaman was used by Abu Hamza to travel to Bosnia, where he spent time with Arab Mujahidin factions, in 1995. The passport, and an expired one in his real name, were retained by police who searched his home in 1999.
They did not report the discovery to the Crown Prosecution Service. At the time there was competition between Special Branch and MI5 to recruit Abu Hamza as an informer.
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It remains unclear whether Abu Hamza could have been prosecuted for possessing the passport in the name Eaman. Claims have been made that he changed his name legally in 1995 before going to Bosnia. He believed his name was known to the authorities because he had been in Afghanistan.