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Row over MPs' phone tapping

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: British MPs are furious over a reported Government move to lift the 40-year-old ban on tapping their phones in what is seen as yet another sign of the alarming expansion in the powers of intelligence agencies after last year's London bombings.

Downing Street confirmed that a recommendation to this effect had been received and would be "considered in due course''.

The argument for lifting the ban apparently is that in the larger interest of national security MPs should be treated in the same way as ordinary citizens but, according to The Independent on Sunday newspaper, the move has sparked a row in the Cabinet with the Defence Secretary John Reid leading the opposition.

"Reid demanded to know why on earth we were going down this route,'' an anonymous colleague of the Minister was quoted as saying. MPs cutting across party lines attacked the reported proposal saying that it would undermine the confidentiality of communication between people's elected representatives and their constituents.

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