Theresa May: we must deny terrorists safe spaces to communicate

Theresa May criticises her coalition colleagues for blocking the communications data bill in 2012

Theresa May has said there must be no safe spaces for terrorist communications as she indicated that the Conservative manifesto will contain proposals to prevent encryption of internet communications.

The home secretary mounted another fierce attack on her coalition colleagues for blocking the communications data bill in 2012, saying: With every day that passes without the capabilities in the proposed bill, the powers of the security services diminish. She said this meant crimes will go unpunished and innocent lives put at risk.

May told the Commons it was likely that the counter-terrorist investigation in Paris following the massacre at Charlie Hebdo involved the use of communications data to locate the suspects.

She said it was necessary to allow the police and the security services, under a tightly controlled regime, to find out the who, where, when and how of a communication, but not its content.

May said she was waiting for a review of communications surveillance being undertaken by the independent reviewer David Anderson, as well as a report from parliaments intelligence and security committee.

She was scathing when asked by Julian Huppert, the Liberal Democrat MP, whether she was happy to join a small number of dictatorships in banning encryption. Huppert said total access to internet messages for the security services would cause huge problems for anyone that relies on secure online transaction for banking and online shopping, jeopardising Britains reputation as a safe a place to do business.

May replied: We are determined as far as possible that there are no safe spaces for terrorists to communicate. I would have thought that this is a principle that could be held by everyone in the Commons So far as I am concerned and the Conservative party is concerned, our manifesto will make clear that we will introduce legislation needed to restore our declining capabilities and that we will use all the legal powers available to us to make sure that, where appropriate, the intelligence and security agencies have the maximum capability to intercept the communications of suspects while making sure that such intrusive techniques are properly overseen.

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, pointed out that May had not come to her seeking fresh powers, and she warned against a caricatured argument between liberty on the one hand and security on the other.

The former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw said the differences between the Conservatives and Labour on surveillance of communications were not large.

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Theresa May: we must deny terrorists safe spaces to communicate