Chris Huhne
Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh
British Criminals Would Walk Free Under Tory Plans – Huhne
More than 300 dangerous criminals would have walked free under the Conservatives’ policy on Europe, according to research by the Liberal Democrats.
Conservative MEPs voted against the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), which has slashed extradition times across the EU from an average of eighteen months to just 43 days.
David Cameron’s Conservative party would allow hundreds of murderers, thieves, rapists and paedophiles to walk free if they get their way on 4 June.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:
“The arm of the British law must be long enough to drag villains back from the beach bars and put them behind prison bars where they belong.
“The Conservatives are putting swivel-eyed dogma ahead of our children’s safety. This is the madness of a political lunatic fringe living on Fantasy Island. The Tories should get real before the criminals get us.
“The Tories want to tie up the police and prosecutors in red tape so that we would take years rather than days extradite rapists and robbers on the run.
“The Conservatives are happy for villains to sip their cocktails while sticking two fingers up to the law.”
Commenting further, Graham Watson MEP, Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, who guided the EAW legislation through the European Parliament in 2001, said:
“The Tories fought tooth and nail against the European Arrest Warrant because they’d rather indulge their dogma than catch serious criminals.
“Seven years later, nothing has changed.
“What would those Tories say now to the victims of the 335 dangerous criminals arrested under European Arrest Warrants who might otherwise have walked free?
“They must apologise now for a policy that puts the public at risk.”
Notes:
1. 335 people have been extradited under the European Arrest Warrant since 2004. The figures came from an answer to a Parliamentary Question:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm081119/text/81119w0030.htm#08112012002237 <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm081119/text/81119w0030.htm>
2. During the passage of the Extradition Bill in 2003, Lord Filkin noted that it took on average 18 months in a contested case to extradite someone from Britain, and certain notorious cases had gone on for five years or more:
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/2003/may/01/extradition-bill#column_853#column_853 <http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/2003/may/01/extradition-bill>
3. The Conservatives voted against the European Arrest Warrant when it was voted on in the European Parliament in 2002: