Britain risks becoming police state with anti-terror laws, says ex-MI5 chief

Published on Monday 16 February 2009 23:19

DAME Stella Rimington, the former MI5 chief, last night claimed the government had exploited people's fear of terrorism to restrict civil liberties.

She said ministers risked handing a victory to terrorists by making people "live in fear and under a police state".

Dame Stella, who stood down as the Security Service's director-general in 1996, also accused the United States, claiming the Guantanamo Bay camp and allegations of torture had been a recruiting sergeant for extremists.

Her comments came as a report by a panel of leading judges and lawyers said measures to tackle terrorism have undermined international human rights laws.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, Dame Stella said: "Since I have retired, I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the government, especially the attempt to pass laws which interfere with people's privacy."

She added: "It would be better that the government recognised there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, (which is] precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state."

Dame Stella, 73, has been a harsh critic of the Government's policies, including attempts to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects to 42 days and the controversial ID cards plan.

She added: "The US has gone too far with Guantanamo and the tortures. MI5 does not do that."

A study published today by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) found "many states have fallen into a trap set by terrorists" by introducing measures which undermine the values they seek to protect.