George Osborne hints at bringing back Snooper’s Charter after Paris attack


Ben Riley-Smith reports in the Telegraph that George Osborne has dropped hints that the Conservatives want to bring back the Communications Data Bill, otherwise known as the Snooper’s Charter.

It follows the terrorist attacks in Paris on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish Hyper Cacher supermarket, and claims by the Head of MI5 that al-Qaeda is planning a Paris-style terrorist atrocity against Britain.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP chairman of Parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC), also called for the security services to be given extra powers to monitor the internet.

The Conservatives were forced to drop the Communications Data Bill, which would have given the security services more powers to access online communications, in 2013 following opposition from the Liberal Democrats.