At Prime Minister’s Questions today Charles Kennedy, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, reiterated ‘the shared sense that we all have of deep sympathy for those suffering distress as a result of the loss’ after last Thursday’s London terrorist attacks.
He said it made sense ‘for the three party leaderships to stand now as one with the Muslim community on that basis and in so doing for us all to demonstrate together that this is not simply an issue for the Muslim community alone but it is an issue for all of us who share this country and share with them, British citizenship.’
Mr Kennedy also asked the Prime Minister about the retention of phone and email data - specifically ‘how confident is the Government at the moment that they will have the support from European Governments in pursuing this and that the service providers will, in fact, have the capacity to store the data that will be required?’
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Text of PMQ exchange:
Mr Kennedy: Can I reiterate the shared sense that we all have of deep sympathy for those suffering distress as a result of the loss of their loved ones last week and add my voice to the congratulations to the police in the fine work that’s been done. Mr Speaker, undoubtedly we all share a sense of national dismay that these terrorists were British and it is incumbent upon all of us to keep stressing the fact that the vast majority of British Muslims totally condemn the bombings that took place in London last week. And it certainly makes sense – as the Prime Minister knows I agree – for the three party leaderships to stand now as one with the Muslim community on that basis and in so doing for us all to demonstrate together that this is not simply an issue for the Muslim community alone but it is an issue for all of us who share this country and share with them, British citizenship.
Prime Minister: Obviously I agree with those sentiments and it’s important that we all stand together at this moment.
Mr Kennedy: I thank the Prime Minister and I’d like to thank him, following on from what he said first on Monday in the House and now has amplified today, that he will be on a cross-party basis also be looking at any further anti-terrorism legislation, including acts preparatory to terrorism itself which may be brought before the House. Can I ask him, specifically, given that the Home Secretary today is very sensibly chairing a special meeting of his opposite numbers in Brussels - given our presidency of the Union - where he wishes to get agreement on the retention of email and phone data as part of any anti-terrorism legislation: leaving aside the merits of what the Home Secretary is pursuing, how confident is the Government at the moment that they will have the support from European Governments in pursuing this and that the service providers will, in fact, have the capacity to store the data that will be required?
Prime Minister: I mean, I am confident that other European countries – the majority of whom face the same type of threat – will be supportive in this. I’m sure they will, and the exchange of data and the retention of data is one very, very important part of dealing with this. And as I saw for myself at the joint operations centre, the fact is, it is absolutely vital that we get co-operation from intelligence services across the board in order to defeat this because the links are very seldom confined to one country wherever the particular people who engage in the terrorist act come from. Nonetheless they have almost always have had strong links with the outside world.
END OF PMQ EXCHANGE
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