Nick Clegg promises plans to snoop on emails will get 'highest possible safeguards' However, Mr Clegg insisted the measures are necessary as police cannot track criminals using internet programmes such as Skype to make phone calls. He said the Government is trying to deal with a "simple pragmatic issue" but declined to say whether local councils and other governments agencies would have access to the records. "We haven't published the proposals but this is essentially about how you go after criminals and terrorists," he said. Clearly the people who are most involved in this are the police. Julian Huppert, a Liberal Democrat MP and critic of the plans, said he felt reassured that the plans were "not a fait accompli" within the Government. However, the Coalition is facing a growing backlash over the move, which is a revival of plans first raised then abandoned by the last Labour government - and which the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both criticised. David Davis, the former Shadow Home Secretary, has said the plan is "an unnecessary extension of the ability of the State to snoop on people."