Labour’s Diane Abbott accuses Amber Rudd of ‘political grandstanding’ over WhatsApp comments and urges judicial oversight of access to encrypted messages

LABOUR's Diane Abbott has accused Amber Rudd of "political grandstanding" over her comments about encrypted messages on WhatsApp.

The Shadow Home Secretary said Ms Rudd should set out how the Government will make sure citizens' privacy is not breached.

Yesterday the Home Secretary blasted the messaging service WhatsApp for "letting terrorists hide their plotting" - despite that she used the app herself.

The perpetrator of the Westminster attack last week, Khalid Masood, used the app minutes before he drove a car along Westminster Bridge, killing three and injuring dozens more. He went on to stab police officer Keith Palmer to death outside one of Parliament's entrances.

Ms Rudd said that the intelligence services must be able to have access to the encrypted messaging service in their enquiries.

Messages sent using the Facebook-owned app are unreadable if intercepted -  as the messages are digitally scrambled when it leaves a device.

But some information can be accessed - such as the time a message was written, physical locations of the sender, and telephone numbers communicating.

WhatsApp have passed on this information to the authorities.

The Home Secretary has summoned Facebook and other tech companies to a meeting on Thursday, and hinted that if they do not cooperate, they could face further laws to restrict them.

Ms Abbott said this afternoon that "Labour opposes an open access trawl of all messaging," and that  "good counter-terrorism measures are nearly always intelligence led.

She went on: "In the cases of suspects or perpetrators of serious crime or terrorism, it is crucial that there is effective judicial oversight of the security services’ access to encrypted messages.

"Amber Rudd will be keen to set out exactly how the Government will ensure that law-abiding citizens’ privacy is not breached."

And she added: "Fighting terrorism is a serious business, and should not be used for political grandstanding."

Yesterday Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the authorities already had "huge powers" and that there needed to be a balance between the right for police to investigate, and the "right to privacy".

But Major General Shaw said this morning that she was using the terror attack to justify greater surveillance powers.

The former chief of cyber security at the Ministry of Defence told Radio 4 this morning that politicians were trying to "nudge the debate more in their line".

He said: "We are in real trouble if we apply blunt weapons to this, absolutist solutions."