Stop playing politics on control orders, says Ed Balls

Police and security services believe it would not be possible to keep the UK safe if control orders were scrapped, shadow home secretary Ed Balls has claimed.

He said Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg would be "very mistaken" to play politics with control orders, which place constraints on terror suspects.

On Sunday, the Deputy Prime Minister said the orders would be scrapped. Now it looks likely they will be replaced with a new system, with the subjects not necessarily placed under house arrest and able to use a mobile phone and the internet.

Mr Balls said: "You should not be striking deals over something this important. The evidence and the experts should be guiding us. It increasingly looks as though politics, holding the coalition together and appeasing backbenchers is more important in the minds of Nick Clegg and the Prime Minister than doing the right thing."