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Gary McKinnon (Extradition)

My right hon. Friend, in his Select Committee report, did not unearth a different view on whether I had discretion. Two lawyers from Matrix Chambers gave evidence to the Committee and said exactly what I have said today: if there were a supervening diagnosis—it was not in these words, but this is the gist of what they said—I, like my predecessor, have the discretion, when all the court cases are finished and if something new arises, to decide whether the case meets article 3 severity. That is what Matrix Chambers said in its evidence to the Committee, and that is what I am saying, so there is absolutely no difference between us. I think we have established, with the very honest remarks of the hon. Member for Ashford, that actually we all accept where my discretion—if we want to call it that—lies. There might arise fresh evidence. When the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton gave me the evidence on Gary McKinnon and what was said to be his worsening condition, of course I looked at the matter again. That is what my predecessor did as well. Incidentally, we have now had three Home Secretaries making the same decision. This is a matter for the Home Secretary, of course, but I believe that anyone in my position would have come to the same conclusion, irrespective of how difficult it might be.