AN ANTI-SURVEILLANCE group based in Southampton has called on Parliament to reject a controversial bill describing it as “Orwellian”.

Ian Thomas co-ordinator of NO2ID, a group which campaigns against giving security forces the legal right to spy on people is asking MPs to reject a draft version of the Communications Data Bill.

The protest comes after the report published by a cross-party committee of MPs and Peers said the Home Office failed to make a case for new snooping laws.

Under the proposed charter, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) would be required to retain information about everyone’s web browsing, email, gaming and chat sessions, and hand it over without a warrant.

Ian Thomas, Southampton co-ordinator of NO2ID, the campaign against the Database State, said: “With the Internet and mobile phones so much a part of everybody's daily lives, what’s being proposed is in effect, nothing less than the permanent, blanket surveillance of the entire population.

“The Home Office says it would only snoop on who you're talking to, not what you're saying, as though this somehow makes its Orwellian scheme acceptable.”