Conservative leader David Cameron warned today that Labour has created a ‘control state’ with sweeping powers to intrude into people’s private lives.
Officials now had more than 1,000 reasons to knock on people’s doors and demand to enter their home, he said.
That was more like a ‘foreign dictatorship or bygone age’ than a modern democracy.
Mr Cameron also attacked the erosion of the right to trial by jury, ID cards, blanket stop and search powers, creeping extensions to the national DNA database and extradition to other countries without evidence of wrongdoing.
Mr Cameron, in a speech at Imperial College, London, said: ‘Today we are in danger of living in a control state.
‘Almost a million innocent citizens are caught in the web of the biggest DNA database in the world – larger than that of any dictatorship.
‘Hundreds of shadowy powers allow officials to force their way past your front door, and soon we will be forced to surrender our fingerprints, eye scans and personal information to intrusive compulsory ID cards.
‘Every month over a thousand surveillance operations are carried out, not just by law enforcement agencies but by other public bodies like councils and quangos.
‘And the tentacles of the state can even rifle through your bins for juicy information.’
Civil rights groups warn the steady erosion of traditional freedoms and the increasing use of surveillance have left Britain on the brink of becoming a ‘Big Brother’ society.
Almost 800 public bodies have been given permission to carry out surveillance and intercept communications.
Councils launched nearly 10,000 spying missions last year, including surveillance of petty offences like dog fouling and even under-age smoking.
Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, which gives the police power to stop and search any person on the street, was used over 120,000 times last year, a threefold increase on the year before.
Yet only one per cent of the searches conducted led to arrest, let alone changes or convictions.
Mr Cameron said that powers were being so seriously misused that one woman had been stopped for walking on a cycle path.
He said there were now ‘serious questions’ about the quality of justice in Britain.
Labour had repeatedly launched moves to remove the role of juries in fraud trials, coroners’ inquests and other criminal trials, he said.
Britain also now allowed extradition to a range of countries without them having to produce proper evidence that the person in question has committed a crime.
‘We will review the operation of the Extradition Act – and the US/UK extradition treaty – to make sure it is even-handed and works both ways,’ Mr Cameron said.
He also pledged to change the law that allows councils to snoop on people for trivial matters, review Section 44, and change the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to strengthen the right to trial by jury.
Mr Cameron said a Tory government would seek to rebalance the relationship between the individual and the state by opening up information contained by the Government.
New information on hospital and school league tables and police performance would be published regularly on the internet, he said.
‘The balance of power in our country has shifted away from the individual – just trying to live their life – and towards the state and its agencies – constantly probing, prying and picking on people. So we will make some important changes,’ Mr Cameron added.
‘A Conservative government would constantly ask two essential questions: does this action enhance personal freedom, and does it advance political accountability?’
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: ‘Mr Cameron’s support for the right to a fair trial and the right to privacy is heartening and his plans to scrap ID cards, review snooping powers and remove innocents from the DNA database are to be commended.
‘Human rights are universal and inalienable – we must never take them for granted.’
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He certainly knows how to play all sides.