U.K.: Labor MPs slam terror plans

LONDON, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- The British government's plans for new anti-terror legislation have been criticized by several Labor Party lawmakers as ill-considered.

John Denham, former Home Office minister and now chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, expressed dismay that the government had abandoned the consensual approach it had taken in the immediate aftermath of the July 7 bombings.

The flurry of ideas in the last few days, many of them not properly developed or consulted over, gave the sense that the government was in a state of "panic," he told the Financial Times Tuesday.

And he told the BBC, "I think they've got to get a grip on it very, very quickly, stop floating half-baked ideas and get back to proper cross-party consensus on the serious measures that need to be taken."

On Monday it was announced that treason charges could be brought against outspoken Islamic clerics; however Lord Chancellor Charlie Falconer told the BBC Tuesday that the idea was not "a runner."

Bob Marshall-Andrews, a left-wing Labor back-bencher, told the Guardian the moves were "classic Blair, an attempt to raise the temperature by saying we need more laws. It's highly populist and most of it is unnecessary."