WHAT A FIASCO!

While Mrs May parties with B-listers, blunder by officials lets Abu Qatada thwart plan to deport him – and launch appeal meaning he could be here for years

EFFORTS to deport hate preacher Abu Qatada descended into chaos last night after an apparent blunder by Home Office lawyers opened the door for a last-ditch legal appeal. Home Secretary Theresa May ordered the fanatic’s arrest on Tuesday believing the deadline for him to return to the European Court of Human Rights had passed on Monday night – raising hopes that he could soon be put on a plane to Jordan.

But yesterday Strasbourg officials said UK Government lawyers had miscalculated the date and jumped the gun.

Qatada’s lawyers, believing the real deadline was midnight on Tuesday, submitted papers an hour earlier.

Embarrassingly, they were working to thwart his deportation as Mrs May schmoozed at a glitzy party to celebrate the 50th birthday of showbusiness agent Jonathan Shalit on Tuesday night.

She was pictured rubbing shoulders with celebrities such as Kelly Brook, Tulisa Contostavlos and Lorraine Kelly.

Last night the confusion caused a furious row, with Mrs May defiant, insisting the Government had not made a mistake and the appeal should be struck out. Home Office sources insisted Strasbourg was guilty of ‘moving the goalposts’.

And David Cameron said he was determined that Qatada would be deported,

‘We’re determined he will go, no matter what’

no matter how long it took. The Prime Minister said: ‘He is a threat to our security, he has absolutely no further call on our hospitality and he should be deported. That is what we are determined to achieve, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how long it may take.’

The new appeal to the court’s Grand Chamber could extend further the legal merry- go- round which began nearly a decade ago. It could be three months before an initial ruling on whether the appeal is admissible or not. If it is accepted there will be a full hearing, adding months if not years of further delay.

The appeal raises the prospect of a nightmare scenario in which the court overturns its original decision and delivers a new ruling which strikes a terminal blow not only to removing Qatada but also 15 similar cases.

Qatada might also sue the Government for wrongful arrest by taking him into custody ahead of the deadline.

The radical preacher, once described by a judge as ‘Osama Bin Laden’s right hand man in Europe’, is expected to demand he be released on bail while the appeal is considered.

Yesterday Mrs May insisted no mistake had been made and said that the deadline had passed before the appeal was lodged.

Home Office officials pointed to a statement from the court which said the Grand Chamber will rule on whether the appeal was received in time, raising the prospect it could yet be rejected for arriving after the deadline. However, a Strasbourg spokesman insisted the deadline was 24 hours later than ministers had been told.

Last night Tories rallied round the Home Secretary.

Senior backbencher David Davis said the ECHR judges were ‘making the law up as they go along’.

‘The raw truth is that [Abu Qatada’s] got to face justice at some point,’ he said. ‘We’ve got to get the ECHR to understand this. I don’t think there’s a risk of him being tortured. I don’t think there’s a risk of him facing an injustice.’

‘The Jordanians have said that they won’t use evidence from torture in his case.’ Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the home affairs select committee, said the situation had turned ‘ chaotic and almost farcical’.

It was even suggested that a BBC journalist may have alerted the Home Office as early as last week that their deadline was different from that the court had set.

In January the judges blocked efforts to deport Qatada on the grounds that he would not face a fair trial in Jordan because evidence against him could be based on torture.

Following the January 17 ruling, the Home Office was given a threemonth deadline to appeal, which they believed expired on Monday night.

In the interim Mrs May secured a deal with the Middle Eastern state it was hoped would lead to his departure.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Qatada has no right to refer the case to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, since the three-month deadline to do so lapsed at midnight on Monday night.’

The row threatens to overshadow a meeting of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights’ governing body, today when ministers are expected to announce a deal on major reform of the court.

And last night Britain’s efforts to curb the meddling of European judges were plunged into chaos when a Liberal Democrat minister denied there was any ‘crisis’ over rulings of the Strasbourg court.

Justice minister Lord Mcnally denied the ECHR was ‘ riding roughshod’ over British law. His intervention infuriated Tory backbenchers.