Clause 5 - Provisional arrest
Extradition Bill
4:00 pm
Mr Bob Ainsworth (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Coventry North East, Labour)
Would it be in order for me to ask whether the Leo Price who has been continually quoted is the same Leo Price who is trying to raise money to challenge the legality of our membership of the European Union? How much has he managed to raise, and how much has the hon. Member for Surrey Heath contributed to his campaign? I feel certain, having listened to the extensive quotations, that it is the same person.
Provisional arrest is needed in some circumstances, and I do not think that they are difficult to imagine. They are provided for in the Extradition Act 1989—introduced when the party of the hon. Member for Surrey Heath was in power—and the circumstances are straightforward. I will not use a terrorist as an example, because it seems that the hon. Member for Surrey Heath does not mind what we do to terrorists. Let us say that a mass murderer jumps on an aeroplane and is heading for Heathrow, and that the aeroplane will arrive before the warrant. The hon. Gentleman is effectively suggesting that that person should go free, that a mass murderer should be allowed to walk around the streets of Britain. That is nonsense, and is a departure from our current extradition arrangements. He should be ashamed of himself for raising it.
Question put, That the clause stand part of the Bill:—
The Committee divided: Ayes 9, Noes 4.