Theresa May to face MPs' questions over Qatada appeal row

Home Secretary Theresa May is to face fresh questions about her handling of UK attempts to deport radical cleric Abu Qatada when she appears before MPs.

She is under pressure amid confusion over the deadline for appeals against the preacher's deportation to Jordan.

Mrs May has insisted the UK believed the deadline was Monday 16 April although the European Court of Human Rights said it was a day later.

Labour have urged Mrs May to "come clean" about the advice she was given.

Mrs May will be questioned about a range of issues when she appears before the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee - although the session is likely to be dominated by the ongoing row over UK efforts to deport Abu Qatada to Jordan.

Ministers believe the three-month deadline for appealing against the ECHR ruling passed just over a week ago.

But the court said it had received a request for an appeal at 2200 BST on Tuesday 17 April, which it said was before the deadline.

Lawyers for the Palestinian-Jordanian preacher, who is wanted in Jordan on bomb-plotting charges, have claimed that the government got the date wrong.

The deportation process cannot now begin until it is decided whether the case should go to the court's Grand Chamber.

Mrs May has said the government's position was based on conversations between UK officials and those at the European Court, as well as the precedent of other similar cases heard there.

But the home secretary has not said the UK received specific advice from the court confirming the deadline was the end of Monday night.

David Cameron has appeared to step back from an assertion that the Home Office received specific assurances.

The prime minister had said UK officials "were told throughout that the deadline expired on the Monday night" by European Court staff.

But later he told the BBC their "assumption and understanding" was that Abu Qatada had until Monday 16 April.

Labour have demanded the home secretary make public the evidence received about the deadline "to prevent these errors happening again".

The ECHR originally blocked Abu Qatada's deportation to Jordan in January.

The UK said last week it had received fresh guarantees from Jordan that Abu Qatada would face a fair trial so he could now be deported.