Tories slam ‘creeping growth of surveillance society’

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve has slammed the "creeping growth of a surveillance society" at this week's Conservative Party conference.

Dopminic Grieve said the public was "fed up with the creeping growth of a surveillance society which intrudes into their private lives and loses their personal data".

Grieve also used his speech to attack the government's national identity card scheme. The national identity card scheme will be officially launched this month with ID cards issued to foreign nationals from outside the European Economic Area.

Grieve said the government had "created the worst of all worlds". It had increased surveillance while levels of crime had heightened. "We're less free. We're less safe," he claimed.

He also attacked the use by councils of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to snoop on citizens whilst investigating minor misdemenours.