Breaking News UK: Ed Miliband calls for US-style debate over Britain’s intelligence agencies

Labour leader calls for examination of oversight of GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 in wake of Edward Snowden leaks

A major overhaul of the oversight of Britain’s intelligence agencies, which could see an opposition politician chairing parliament’s intelligence and security committee, should be examined, Ed Miliband has said.

The Labour leader praised Barack Obama for starting an “important debate” in the US – after the White House appointed a panel in the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks – and called for a similar debate in Britain.

In some of his most extensive comments on the NSA leaks, Miliband told a Guardian audience that reforming the oversight of GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 was “definitely” part of his campaign to challenge “unaccountable power”. This was the main theme of his Hugo Young lecture at Kings Place, home to the Guardian, which is held every year in memory of the newspaper’s late political commentator, who died in 2003.

Miliband said that Labour believed that reform should focus on two levels – parliament’s all party intelligence and security committee, which is always chaired by a senior MP from the governing party, and the commissioners who oversee the intelligence agencies.

The Labour leader said: “I already believe, and this is what my Labour colleagues have been saying, that there are clearly changes that are going to need to be made in relation to the intelligence and security committee and the oversight it provides. That is everything from the resources they have at their disposal, who chairs the committee and whether it should be somebody from the government party or the opposition party, their power to compel witnesses – a range of issues.

“There is also a set of issues around the commissioners – the intercept commissioner and the intelligence commissioners – and the framework for that. This is an issue Labour is looking at and we will have more to say about it in the coming months. President Obama has started an important debate in the US and that is a debate that needs to take place here too.”

Miliband set his reform plans firmly within the context of his Hugo Young Lecture, during which he outlined plans to tackle inequalities in power. He said: “The issue of oversight of the intelligence services and the way they work is definitely part of this agenda. My commitment is that we do need to look at these issues, they are important.”

But Miliband said he was supportive of the work of the intelligence agencies and said that the ministerial oversight, which means that the relevant secretary of state has to approve any interception, was a good system. He said: “My starting point in this is the intelligence services do an important job. As somebody who wants to be the prime minister of this country I know that they do an important job in seeking to keep us safe.

“What has got to be done in relation to that is that there have got to be the right checks and balances in the system because the guarantee that we need for the British people is that the services are keeping us safe and in doing so are subjected to proper oversight. There are definitely issues of oversight that need to be looked at in this country.

“There are two reviews, as I understand it, going on – one by the intercept commissioner and one by the intelligence and security committee. That is important. We need to look at what they come up with.”

On the ministerial oversight of interception, he said: “It is worth saying also that there is in this country … ministerial sign off when intercept and so on takes place. That is a very, very important safeguard. I do believe the intelligence services do important work. But I absolutely endorse the idea that there are important issues of liberty and liberty is an important part of Labour’s agenda.”

Miliband also talked about the reform of public services, and said that patients would be given a formal role overseeing changes to local NHS services under a Labour government.

In his most important speech on the reform of public services since his election as Labour leader in 2010, Miliband announced that under a Labour government clinical commissioning groups would be forced to consult patients before they introduce significant changes to local NHS services.

Clinical commissioning groups would have to appoint patients to committees overseeing change, he said. These could be nominated by local Healthwatch bodies or they could be nominated by a cancer charity if the changes affected local cancer services.

Miliband said: “We need to find far better ways of hearing the patient voice. So a Labour government will ensure that patients are involved right at the outset: understanding why change might be needed, what the options are and making sure everyone round the table knows what patients care about.

“No change could be proposed by a clinical commissioning group without patient representatives being involved in drawing up the plan.”

The Labour leader also said that NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups would be stripped of their powers to consult local communities over any changes.

“When change is proposed, it should be an independent body, such as the Health and Wellbeing Board, that is charged with consulting with the local community. Not, as happens now, the hospital trust or commissioning group that is seeking the change,” he said.