Mr Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, appeared to put a stop to the Tory proposals during his weekly Call Clegg programme on LBC Radio, saying they are “not going to happen”.Mr Cameron’s official spokesman insisted that discussions about the plans are still “ongoing”, however senior Lib Dems said that Mr Clegg had “killed” the proposals.
It comes after Charles Farr, the Government’s anti-terror chief, warned that new legislation is needed to “level the playing field” with terrorists who are taking advantage of technological advantages.
Under the Government’s plans telecoms and internet service providers would be paid taxpayers’ money to log their customers’ emails, internet use and other correspondence in a way that could be easily searched by pubic officials.
Mr Clegg has mounted staunch resistance to the measures included in Mrs May's proposed Communications Data Bill which would allow the storage of details of the history of website visits and social media contacts for each internet user.
Some senior Tories still hope to get the Bill included in the Queen's Speech on May 8 with major concessions to Mr Clegg.
However, those chances appear to be dwindling, with one Lib Dem source saying that the “snoopers’ charter will categorically not happen”.
Mr Clegg said that he is prepared to consider minor technical changes to the current rules, but warned that keeping a “treasure trove” of data to be mined by security officials is not “workable or proportionate”.
“What people have dubbed the snoopers’ charter, I just have to be clear with you, that’s not going to happen,” Mr Clegg said.
“In other words the idea that the Government will pass a law which means that there would be a record kept of every website you visit, of who you communicate with on social media sites, that’s not going to happen. It’s certainly not going to happen with Liberal Democrats in government.”
Mr Clegg suggested that he could be in favour of technical changes such as giving every mobile device its own unique IP address.
Mr Clegg said: “I’ve spoken to senior police officers and people from the security services, of course we need to support them. They’ve got very significant powers already which I support them in deploying to go after criminals to keep us safe.
“There are technical issues about how as technology changes you’ve to update that. For instance we’ve all got more and more mobile devices but there aren’t enough IP addresses to go around. We need to straighten that out.
“But this idea of a snoopers’ charter, as it’s been dubbed, where a law is passed where there’s a record kept of all the websites that you visit, of who you communicate with on social media websites, I’m afraid I think that is not either necessarily workable nor proportionate so it’s not going to happen.”
One source told the Telegraph that Mr Clegg met with the Prime Minister yesterday to discuss the issue.
“There is a disagreement,” the source said. “But the snoopers’ charter is not going to happen. We just do not find the proposals acceptable.”
Mr Clegg’s comments were welcomed by senior Lib Dems. Tim Farron, the president of the party, tweeted: “We have killed the Snooper Charter - campaigning together we have stopped this. Standing up for civil liberties & freedom of speech.”
Mr Cameron’s spokesman said: “It is important to acknowledge the scale of technological change, it’s important that the police and security services are able to respond to that change.
“That’s why the Prime Minister thinks it’s important that progress is made on this issue and discussions in Government on how best we do that continue.”
Mr Farr, the Director General of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, this week said: “Without doubt one of the biggest challenges ... every security and law enforcement agency around the world is now facing is the very rapid development of communications types and methods and in particular, but not only, encryption.”
He added: “Legislation and some degree of technology is required to enable us to level the playing field. But that legislation clearly is controversial and we can see this being played out in the UK at the moment.”
Conservative backbenchers also welcomed the developments, with Dominic Raab, the Esher and Walton MP saying they should "be buried for good".
“This Orwellian scheme should be buried for good. For the billions it would cost, there are far better ways to strengthen law enforcement without snooping on every law-abiding citizen,” Mr Raab said.
Nick De Bois, the MP for Enfield North added: “It’s good news that this Bill is dead. The proposals would not have worked, would not have made us safer and yet would have carried massive costs. The Bill’s scattergun approach to monitoring personal data would have made us all suspects.”
Original Article
Source: telegraph.co.uk
Author: Peter Dominiczak
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