COLNE Valley MP Jason McCartney has offered to start a fund to pay any fine the UK will face if it ignores a European Court of Human Rights judgement over a terror suspect.

The court has ruled that Britain cannot deport radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada whom the Government says poses a serious risk to our national security.

Qatada, 51 – once described as ‘Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe’ – has been held for six-and-a-half years. This is more than any other detainee in modern immigration history while fighting deportation to Jordan.

But he will be released from the maximum security Long Lartin jail in Worcestershire where he is being held after applying for bail. Human rights judges in Europe ruled that he could not be deported without assurances from Jordan that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him.

When the issue was raised in the House of Commons, Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney offered to start a fund to pay any fine and would be the first to put a fiver in.

“I thought I’d start the ball rolling,” he said.

And he has now revealed that one of his constituents has even offered to donate £500 and he has been inundated with many other offers of cash help.

But Mr McCartney now believes it won’t come to a fine. He says both France and Italy have ignored European Court of Human Rights rulings and deported terror suspects and both have received no more punishment than strongly worded letters.

Mr McCartney said: “I am not suggesting for one moment a breakdown in the rule of law.