Charles Kennedy

Liberal Democrats | Ross Skye & Lochaber

Charles Kennedy At PMQ’s: Prime Minister Is Becoming Increasingly Authoritarian

At Prime Minister’s Questions Charles Kennedy challenged Tony Blair to concede that he was becoming increasingly authoritarian. Mr Kennedy urged the Prime Minister to look at a checklist of the government’s authoritarian measures such as “questioning the principles of innocence until proved guilty, promoting the concept of summary justice, picking fights with the judiciary, and saying that he wants to lock people up for 90 days without charge.” He then added, “Now if that isn’t an authoritarian approach, what is?”

Mr Kennedy also pointed out to the Prime Minister that yesterday’s ID cards bill was voted against by a number of Labour back-benchers, and with such a small majority it was unlikely to be passed by the House of Lords. Mr Kennedy asked “is it now his intention to use the Parliament Act to push through the Identity Cards bill with the House of Lords based on his 35 % mandate from the country in the House of Commons,” in itself an authoritative measure?

Full text of exchange follows.

Charles Kennedy: Mr Speaker, given the narrowness of the vote last night on his Identity Card bill, does the Prime Minister now accept that it is highly unlikely he will succeed with this bill when it comes before the House of Lords. That being the case, could I return to the question that I asked him in June, which he chose not to answer at that point, is it now his intention to use the parliament act to push through the Identity Cards bill with the House of Lords based on his 35 % mandate from the country in the House of Commons?

Prime Minister: I’m not going to base my answers on the assumption of pessimism that he makes, but ID cards are an important part of our manifesto, and they’re also an important part of trying to protect this country and deliver a better way of people protecting their identity in the modern world, and the reason this is happening is perfectly simple, it’s why it’s happening in many other countries as well, the new biometric technology combined with the fact that identity fraud and identity abuse are far more common in today’s world make the adoption of our Identity Cards over time the sensible way to go for this country. And all I say to him, rather than arguing about who’s going to win and who’s going to lose in the House of Lords is let’s have a serious debate on the issues.

Charles Kennedy: Mr Speaker, no clear answer in June, no clear answer today. He must therefore understand why so many people, including as we heard in the exchanges yesterday, more than a few of his own back-benchers see his government as becoming more authoritarian as every day goes by. I say to the Prime Minister, Mr Speaker, just look at a checklist which involves questioning the principles of innocence until proved guilty, promoting the concept of summary justice, picking fights with the judiciary, and saying that he wants to lock people up for 90 days without charge. Now if that isn’t an authoritarian approach, what is Prime Minister?

Prime Minister: I do not think it is authoritarian to say that in respect of anti-social behaviour in local communities the police need powers including fixed penalty notices, closing down pubs where there’s regular fighting outside of them, putting in place anti-social behaviour orders, I don’t think that is authoritarian, I think it is putting the interests of law abiding people in this country first. Secondly, in respect of the 90 days, the reason we are putting this forward, although of course it is to be subject to judicial oversight every 7 days is because the police tell us that they believe such a power is necessary to prevent terrorist acts. And in respect of Identity Cards, to say if we introduce Identity Cards, which after all large numbers of countries in the world have, that this is an authoritarian act, is absurd. It is truly absurd, the fact of the matter is what we are trying to do, whether it’s in respect of terrorism or anti- social behaviour, or identity abuse, is protect the decent law abiding people of this country, and I do not think that this debate is advanced in any shape or form by the type of language he uses on civil liberties. I accept the civil liberties of this country are an important part of our tradition, but there is also.. yes but if I could say this to the Liberal Democrats there is also a civil liberty to be able to walk down the street without abuse, there is also a civil liberty to make sure that we as a country do not lose out as a result of illegal people trafficking and identity fraud, and there is a civil liberty which is the right to life. Now the truth is in government, difficult decisions have to be taken weighing the balance of these things together. But I can tell him that so far as I’m concerned that I will put the decent, law-abiding citizens of this country first and foremost.