Cameron attacks Brown on 'debilitating' reviews

Published on Wednesday 6 February 2008 21:32

DAVID Cameron yesterday accused Gordon Brown of establishing more than 50 reviews since coming to power, claiming that the number was "debilitating".

The Tory leader said the country needed leadership not an endless stream of reviews on subjects ranging from support for armed forces personnel to the number of sunbeds.

During a fiery Prime Minister's Questions, he drew Tory laughter when telling the Prime Minister: "You've established 52 reviews – that is one every four days. Who is the source of this dithering, or does he need more time to find out?"

Mr Brown defended the reviews, saying they were necessary when making long-term decisions.

The Prime Minister was also accused of turning Britain into a "surveillance state".

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, urged him to follow Scotland's lead in removing details of the innocent from the DNA database.

Mr Clegg said: "This government that has turned the British public into the most spied upon on the planet – 1,000 surveillance requests every day, one million innocent people on the DNA database and 5,000 schools now fingerprinting our children".