Terror fears rock speech

Tony Blair today set out his election stall as worries about terrorism and crime overshadowed attempts to make a positive pitch to voters.

Planned attacks included flying a hijacked plane into the towers at Canary Wharf and a bid to shoot down an airliner at Heathrow with a shoulder-launched missile, according to two separate reports.

Sources said the Islamic terror group intended to use the same methods as those employed in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Although the Government denied leaking the claims, their timing triggered suspicions they were designed to boost today's package of legislation for the final parliamentary session.

It is dominated by new measures to combat terrorism, serious crime and a clampdown on drugs and anti-social behaviour.

Critics accused the Government of trying to frighten voters before the election, although ministers insisted that was a travesty of their real strategy.

Privately, some senior ministers said fear of terrorism and crime was hampering election plans because voters were being distracted-from Labour's key message-of opportunity for all. Gordon Brown's pre-Budget report next month will seek to restore the balance by highlighting new plans to help working families rise up the ladder, said sources.

Some of the most controversial proposed laws - including plans to use phone taps and set up courts without juries to try terrorists - have been put off until after the next election.

The Queen was signalling at least 28 Bills in her address to the Commons and Lords, far more than can be passed if the election is called, as expected, on 5 May. Many of the proposals will be published only in draft form, however, and will not become law for years.

Top of the list of priorities is David Blunkett's plan to introduce compulsory identity cards by 2012 or even 2010, to prevent terrorists and fraudsters adopting false or multiple identities.

He is expected to set out proposals this week to use cards as soon as possible to eradicate bogus claims of social security and health care.

A new national serious crime agency, dubbed the British FBI, will chase criminal Mr Bigs while lower level nuisance crime such as graffiti, litter and vandalism will be tackled by new fines.

Tougher measures to fight drug addiction will mean suspects being prosecuted for having traces in their blood and may be ordered to undertake treatment.

Other measures have been designed to tackle problems encountered by Labour's target group of voters, working families on lower incomes, including laws against loan sharks.

A new ombudsman will help families in serious debt recover money if they have been charged exorbitant interest rates.

"This isn't nanny government," Commons leader Peter Hain told The Times. "It's ensuring that everyone has choices and are best equipped to take maximum advantage of those choices to achieve their aspiration."

Protesters against ID cards were having their skin "branded" with bar-codes by a man wearing a Tony Blair mask.

Organiser Mark Littlewood said: "The creation of a national database is the moral equivalent of bar-coding the entire population."

Mr Blunkett has recently insisted that Labour will campaign on hope not fear, but then warned that forthcoming trials will show al Qaeda are "on our doorstep and threatening lives".

His comments came after Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens spoke of his frustration at not being able to talk about anti-terror successes.

Additional reporting: Paul Waugh, Isabel Oakeshott, Jason Beattie, Ben Leapman, Dick Murray and Dominic Hayes