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Move to tap British MPs' phones dropped

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: A controversial proposal to revoke the ban on tapping the telephones of members of Parliament is reported to have been quietly dropped.

The move, which was to have been a part of new counter-terror measures, had provoked angry protests from MPs who said the ban should not be removed without a debate and a vote in the Commons.

The Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin had also expressed concern saying he was taking the issue "very seriously''.

Under a 40-year-old convention known as the "Wilson doctrine'', named after the former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, MPs are exempt from phone-tapping by security and intelligence agencies. In 1966, Mr. Wilson gave an undertaking to MPs that their phones would not be tapped "whatsoever the circumstances''.

But recently, the Government was reportedly advised to remove the ban in view of new security threats. According to The Guardian newspaper, three senior Cabinet Ministers— the Home Secretary Charles Clarke, the Defence Secretary John Reid and the Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain — "warned'' the Prime Minister Tony Blair that the move would provoke "an unnecessary row''.

It quoted Downing Street as saying that Mr. Blair had written to party leaders informing them of the decision not to revoke the doctrine.

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