HARPENDEN MP Peter Lilley says emergency measures targeting travelling football hooligans would be a 'thuggish law'.

In the Commons debate on the Football (Disorder) Bill, Mr Lilley accused the Government of bowing to public pressure in trying to rush the Bill through.

The Bill could take effect before England's next game abroad, against France in September, but Mr Lilley urged the Government to give the measures 'proper consideration'.

During the debate last Thursday he argued the maintenance of law and order is a matter for individual governments and courts, and said that Home Secretary Jack Straw had been pressurised into taking action because of shocking television pictures.

The Bill would allow authorities to stop someone who has been ejected from another country from travelling to matches, even if they have not been convicted of a crime.

Mr Lilley said that contravened a person's right to be considered innocent until proven guilty and instead assumed someone's guilt under probability rather than fact.

In conclusion, Mr Lilley said: 'The Bill suggests that, if people are expelled from a foreign country, which does not see fit to charge or convict them, they are nonetheless to be treated by our courts as if they had committed an offence.

'I do not think that that is right, and I do not want it enshrined in law.'

He said all the factors that led to bad laws being introduced present in the proposals.