North MP backs anti-terror plans

Apr 3 2008 by William Green, The Journal

A NORTH MP has backed the Government’s anti-terror plans after being caught up in the 2005 suicide bombings in London and not knowing if his stepdaughter was alive.

Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson told the Commons he was on the Tube on July 7, 2005, when the train stopped at Oxford Circus and passengers were told to leave the station because of a power surge – although the sirens and police helicopters at the surface made it clear something else had happened.

“My mobile was not working because the networks were down, but eventually I got hold of my partner, who told me that my stepdaughter had left the Tube at King’s Cross and knew the reasons why the tubes were down, and my partner suggested to her that she catch a bus.

“At that time, I knew what my partner did not know: the Number 30 bus had been blown up at Tavistock Square,” said the Labour MP.

He added: “I decided not to tell her because doing so would generate more worries, but I remember trying a thousand times to get in touch with my stepdaughter to find out whether she was OK.

“I eventually got through to her and she was safe – she had caught a different bus – but as the minutes ticked on by at that time, I did not know that. My family was lucky, unlike many others that day. I do not want to go through that again.”

Mr Wilson backed the Government’s latest plans to tackle terrorism, including a controversial power to extend temporarily the time terror suspects can be held before being charged in exceptional circumstances.

“If the Bill reduces the chances of my family and thousands of other families going through such an episode in the future, it has my support,” said Mr Wilson, who was speaking in a debate on the plans on Tuesday evening. He said the plans were an “honest attempt” to deal with an enemy that wanted to smash democracy, while admitting the controversy of measures such as enhanced information sharing, tougher sentences for terrorists, seizure of terrorists’ assets and post-charge questioning of suspects.

The temporary power to extend pre-charge detention from 28 to 42 days was “proportionate” with safeguards built into the system, Mr Wilson argued. “There may not be a need at present to detain a suspect for 42 days, but with the complexity of some of the cases now under investigation, the time will come when such a provision is necessary, and we should prepare now, instead of waiting until it is too late and another atrocity has happened. That, to me, is common sense.”

He also warned other MPs that constituents would not forgive them if they failed to provide new laws requested by security agencies faced with the enormous task of dealing with the problem.