West Chelmsford Tory MP Simon Burns backed the government last Thursday in the vote on the planned new emergency powers to combat football hooliganism.
The other Tory MPs, with the exception of Sir Norman Fowler who joined Mr Burns in voting with the government, abstained because of concerns over civil liberties, as did the Liberal Democrats.
The new powers, among other things, would enable suspected, but unconvicted, hooligans, to be prevented from travelling abroad during international tournaments.
Mr Burns told the House of Commons: "Since the Football (Offences and Disorder) Act 1999 the courts have not carried through the wishes of Parliament."
He said later: "It would be perverse of me not to broadly support the main thrust of what the government is doing in its Football (Disorder) Bill because significant parts of it are what I have been urging the government to do for the last year.
"I am beginning to tire of the disproportionate concerns being expressed about the civil liberties of a minority to the total exclusion of the civil liberties of the vast majority of law-abiding football supporters.
"Obviously the bill will have to be studied very carefully in its committee stage but, overall, I believe that the government has come up with the right solutions to seek to tackle the significant problem of British football hooliganism at international matches."
By Kathleen Corby
Reporter's e-mail: kathleen.corby@essex-chronicle.co.uk
Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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