Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has accused Gordon Brown of turning Britain into a "surveillance state" during prime minister's questions in the Commons.

He also urged an end to the "scandalous fingerprinting" of children at schools and the removal of more than a million innocent people from the DNA database.

Mr Brown, who earlier promised a quick report on the MP bugging row responded by asking if the Lib Dems backed CCTV.

He added: "We are taking the steps to protect the liberties of citizens."

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Mr Clegg told the prime minister controversy surrounding the bugging of Labour MP Sadiq Khan, on a prison visit to a constituent, "shouldn't come as a surprise to you".

'Urgent' security needs

"After all, it is this government that has turned the British public into the most spied upon the planet - 1,000 surveillance requests every day, one million innocent people on the DNA database and 5,000 schools now fingerprinting our children," he said.

"Is that what you meant when you spoke so stirringly a few months ago about the great British tradition of liberty?"

Mr Brown hit back: "I take it you and your Liberal authorities support CCTV?

"I take it they support the action taken on intercepts when it is necessary to do so for national security?

"I take it that you accept that only 1,500 intercepts have been commissioned by ministers as a result of urgent security needs?"

Mr Clegg said Mr Brown did not seem to see any limits. "You are creating a surveillance state," he said.

He asked why he had "consistently refused" to give the information commissioner more power.

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