Controversial government plans to increase pre-charge detention limits for suspected extremists are unworkable, the former head of the domestic security service MI5 told parliament Tuesday.
Elizabeth Manningham-Buller said in a debate on the subject in the upper House of Lords chamber that she did not think "on a practical basis, as well as a principled one, that these proposals are in any way workable.
"I have weighed up the balance between the right to life -- the most important civil liberty -- the fact there is no such thing as complete security, and the importance of our hard-won civil liberties," she said.
"Therefore on a matter of principle, I cannot support 42 days pre-charge detention."
Manningham-Buller is the latest senior figure in the legal and security establishment, including the chief prosecutor in England and Wales, who have come out against any increase in the current maximum of 28 days to 42 days.
Jonathan Evans, her successor as MI5 director-general, made a rare public statement last month to point out that the organisation he heads was not the appropriate body to advise the government on detention limits.
The comments add to pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who won a vote on the plans in parliament's lower House of Commons last month by just nine supporters after a sizeable rebellion by members of his governing Labour Party.
The main opposition Conservative Party's home affairs spokesman David Davis then resigned, triggering a by-election to take place this Thursday that he said would highlight the government's "slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms."
Labour does not have a majority in the House of Lords, which scrutinises proposed government legislation, and the 42 days plan is unlikely to be passed when they come to vote on the Counter-Terrorism Bill in the coming months.
