David Davis MP criticises Home Secretary over Snoopers’ Charter

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As reported in the Daily Telegraph, David Davis MP yesterday criticised Home Secretary Theresa May after she said criminals, terrorists and paedophiles would oppose a new law allowing the police and security services to monitor every phone call we make, every email we send and every internet site we visit. 

Mrs May added: “It’s a question of whose side you’re on” and accused opponents of the law of “putting politics before people’s lives.”

Mr Davis said: “There are perfectly legitimate arguments to be had. But what you can’t do is effectively impugn the motives of people who disagree with you. That’s what she did, and frankly I wasn’t going to tolerate it.”

He raised a point of order in the Commons asking if the home secretary was going to explain herself and accusing her of “traducing a large number of people in this House” while undermining the work of parliamentary committees examining the Bill.

Mrs May should wait for the MPs and peers, who have heard from legal and technical experts, to report in the next few days and then offer a proper debate, “not try to assault the reputation of those who disagree with you”, Mr Davis said.