JACK Straw has joined other former Home Secretaries in calling for the government to look again at resurrecting the ‘snoopers charter’ in reaction to the killing of soldier Lee Rigby outside Woolwich barracks.

The Blackburn MP also urged the town’s Muslim community to challenge the ‘evil but charismatic’ extremists who stoked up the hatred behind such terrorist acts.

He joined fellow ex-Labour Cabinet Ministers John Reid and Alan Johnson who are calling for the current Home Secretary to look at reviving the Communications Data Bill giving the police and security services powers to track communications using the internet, dropped after Liberal Democrat opposition.

Mr Straw said: “It has been christened the ‘snoopers charter’ but you could call it the ‘safety charter’. It’s about keeping up with the move from telephone communication to digital traffic. There’s going to be a continuing terrorist threat for a long time.

“The challenge people face, in all communities but particularly in the Muslim faith, is to be self-confident in challenging those who peddle this poisonous theology.

“This involves Muslim leaders in Blackburn and elsewhere tackling evil and charismatic leaders who indoctrinate the vulnerable.”