David Cameron rules out deal for Saif Gaddafi - Telegraph.co.uk

A government source said Mr Ismail had been visiting family members, but that Britain had "taken the opportunity to send some very strong messages about the Gaddafi regime".

Yesterday, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "If people are in the UK they are subject to UK law."

He also made clear that Saif Gaddafi will be classed the same way as his father. "We have a very clear view about the present regime and those people involved in that regime," he said.

MI6 is currently thought to be in negotiations with about 12 people in the Libyan regime who wish to defect. Mr Cameron has urged Gaddafi's "henchmen" to flee. Moussa Koussa, the Libyan Foreign Minister, defected and arrived in Britain on Wednesday.

However, there is growing debate over how Koussa and others should be treated if coming to Britain. Some believe they should be treated well, at least initially, to encourage other defections but others insist they must be held accountable for their crimes.

Yesterday, Lord Malloch Brown, the former Foreign Office minister and former Deputy Secretary General of the UN, said: "It's critically important that he be seen to have been well received because there are many others who may follow.

"We have to have a strategy now of trying to fragment the regime by peeling people away from it and if we kind of 'knocked him up' that would deter that because this kind of political strategy which pulls people out of the regime and ultimately isolate Gaddafi is frankly a much better way forward than the rebels having to fight their way to Tripoli and so we want to encourage it."

Vera Baird, who served as solicitor general in the last Labour government, said: "I think we have done exactly the right thing. There were horror stories on TV last night about the things he may be implicated in, but we must keep him.

"We must keep him safe, we must keep him secure – so that in due course he has to face what he has to face – but the urgent thing, surely, is to get as much information as possible.

"He is looking obviously for what he can get and if he were to agree to give evidence against Gaddafi at the International Criminal Court much later on, that might be a very interesting proposition."

She said: "It is very tricky indeed. The priority has got to be getting him (Gaddafi) out now."

But, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke, the former Scottish Secretary, criticised what she said had been a "euphoric welcome" of Koussa to the UK.

She said: "I'm not squeamish, I realise that in a situation of conflict the opportunity to bring someone over from the other side and there are many members of this House [of Lords] who, using their professional skills, have dealt with defectors to the value of this country's security.

"But please, do not let us forget the consequence of Lockerbie not just for the international community but on a quiet and respectable Scottish town that will forever be known as the base of one of the worst atrocities this country has ever known.

"I look forward to greater investigation of the role of Moussa Koussa in Lockerbie and in other atrocities."