Member

Do I believe that this Government and this Minister would misuse the data from mass surveillance to persecute innocent citizens? Of course I do not. But can any noble Lord tell me who will be in 10 Downing Street in 10 years, or three years? Trump is using the Department of Justice to persecute his political opponents whose only crime is to disagree with him, and Trump’s biggest fan in this country is currently top of the opinion polls. How foolish it would be to put into his hands a ready-made tool for easily identifying all gay people or Muslims or Jews, for whom he showed a dislike at school. Of course, he could change the law and get his hands on the surveillance data anyway, but that would take time and would allow his targets to flee, as my father did from Nazi Germany.