Abu Qatada

Alison Seabeck Excerpts

Monday 12th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

My hon. Friend has raised issues about which he has spoken on many occasions in the past, as have a number of my right hon. and hon. Friends. What the public want is to see Abu Qatada deported. We want to see Abu Qatada deported, and we are going to do everything we can within the rule of law to achieve that. It is still open to us to ask leave to appeal. We are doing that, and we will fight for that as hard as we can. We are doing everything in our power, working with the Jordanian Government, to ensure that we can bring about what the public want, which is the deportation of Abu Qatada.

[Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)]

My right hon. Friend the Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) highlighted some of the confusion that has led to Abu Qatada still remaining in the UK. However, one issue the Home Secretary raised was the weight given in the ruling to case law relating to Jordan. She also talked about agreements not being reached with other Governments. Can she say whether there is any precedent in any of those other cases where case law was not in place, but where deportations have happened?

[Mrs May]

The point is that in other deportations we did not have this particular issue at heart—the question of the admissibility of evidence and whether it was achieved through torture. That is a particular point pertaining to the case of Abu Qatada.