The SNP has signalled its "grave concerns" about controversial new surveillance powers, branding the Government's proposed legislation a "rushed job".
Speaking during the Commons second reading of the Investigatory Powers Bill, the party's justice and home affairs spokeswoman Joanna Cherry QC said the SNP would be abstaining, but warned if the Bill "is not amended to our satisfaction we reserve the right to vote against it at a later stage".
The MP for Edinburgh South West said: "The SNP will not be morally blackmailed or bullied by members opposite into blind support for a Bill of dubious legality in some respects and which seeks powers that go beyond other Western democracies.
"We are not going to tolerate any suggestion that by seeking proper scrutiny of the Bill and full justification for the far-reaching powers sought we are being soft on terrorism and serious crime."
The SNP, she said, acknowledged the law needed a "thorough overhaul" and recognised that the security services and the police required adequate powers to fight terrorism and serious crime, but added that such powers needed to be "necessary, proportionate and in accordance with the law".
In a speech which was met by repeated shakes of the head from Home Secretary Theresa May, she said: "In particular such powers must not impinge unduly on the right to privacy or the security of private data. And we feel that many of the powers in this Bill do not at this stage pass those tests.
"For that reason in its current form the SNP cannot give this Bill our full support. We intend to join forces with others in this House to have this Bill as extensively amended as possible.
"Today we shall be abstaining, but if the Bill is not amended to our satisfaction we reserve the right to vote against it at a later stage."
The powers in the Bill to retain internet connection records, and the bulk powers, she argued, "go beyond" what is currently authorised in other Western democracies, adding "and thus they could set a dangerous precedent and a bad example internationally".
The US, she added, was "rolling back" from bulk data collection having found it to be in some cases unconstitutional and also of "questionable value" in fighting terrorism.
The SNP, she said, believed the Government's attempt had not got the balance right between protecting civil liberties and giving the security services and the police the necessary and proportionate powers to fight serious crime and terrorism.
Ms Cherry argued the time scales for scrutiny of the Bill's material was not sufficient. Many lawyers, she added, believed that if the Bill was "not significantly amended" UK law would be "on a collision course" with European courts.
Ms Cherry challenged the premise that the "more privacy we sacrifice the more security we gain" adding this was not backed up by evidence produced.
The case for collecting internet connection records was, she said, "flawed", adding it was "quite fantastically intrusive".
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