Nick Clegg: Snooper's Charter 'Unworkable'

Nick Clegg has warned against "knee-jerk" reactions to the murder of soldier Lee Rigby as he restated his opposition to the so-called "snooper's charter".

The Deputy Prime Minister said measures in the Communications Data Bill were "disproportionate" and "unworkable", despite claims from Cabinet colleagues that the legislation was necessary to ensure public safety.

Mr Clegg also warned any measures to ban radicals such as Anjem Choudary from TV screens would make them heroes to extremist groups.

The controversial communications legislation would require internet companies to retain records of emails and social media messages for a year and allow police and security agencies to access the data, but not the content of messages.

The Deputy Prime Minister said: "We have got to react in a calm way but also a forensic way in deciding exactly what we can do to stop that kind of radicalisation, extremism taking root in individuals and communities."

He added: "Very important parts of what was proposed just weren't workable because the industry, the Facebooks, the Googles, and all these people upon whose cooperation we rely to go after the bad people just said it wasn't really workable in its present form.

"Other aspects of it have always struck me as perhaps being disproportionate."

On his regular radio phone-in show on LBC, Mr Clegg insisted he was not seeking to limit the powers available to the police and security services, acknowledging that he would accept at least one element of the proposed bill.

He said: "I have never suggested that the very considerable powers that our security services and the police have - far in excess, by the way, of many other forces in other parts of the world - should in any way be rolled back.

"Quite the reverse, I'm actually saying in one important respect - matching IP addresses to individual phones and mobile appliances - we should take further action."

Home Secretary Theresa May and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond have called for the Communications Data Bill legislation to be resurrected in response to the killing of Drummer Rigby in Woolwich.

But Mr Clegg said: "I don't think it is responsible of me or any politician to just disengage from the detail, not deal with the difficult dilemmas here of proportionality and workability and simply make sweeping statements, particularly in the immediate, highly emotive, aftermath of such a terrible and horrific act as we saw last Wednesday.

"Previous experience suggests that's when we start making mistakes.

"I think the British public want us politicians to strike this very difficult balance of protecting the freedoms, the democracy, the traditions of liberty which these horrific extremists and terrorists want to threaten.

"They want us to strike the right balance between protecting those but also giving the security services and the police the proportionate, workable tools to keep us safe."