HOME Secretary David Blunkett accused Tory peers of trying to wreck the

fight against crime ahead of a crucial debate in the House of Lords today.

The Government has suffered several defeats in its Criminal Justice Bill at the hands of Conservative peers in its committee stage in the upper house.

Further defeats are expected today, over allowing a court to be told about defendants' characters and over proposed minimum sentences for murderers.

Now Mr Blunkett has warned that attempts to rebuild public confidence in the criminal justice system will be undermined unless Tory peers give way.

A spokesman for Mr Blunkett said: "The Tories in the Lords have systematically, but quietly, taken out large chunks of this Bill, which is designed to make the criminal justice system more effective. If the Tories get their way and we can't reverse these defeats, then the system will continue to get worse and detection rates will continue to go down."

The Bill, which includes the scrapping of the double jeopardy law allowing someone to be tried more than once for the same crime, will be debated in the Lords today and tomorrow. It must clear Parliament before the present session ends, probably in a fortnight's time.

If double jeopardy is scrapped, Teesside mother Ann Ming is hoping the Crown Prosecution Service will reopen the case of her murdered daughter Julie Hogg.

Billingham labourer Billy Dunlop confessed to the murder 14 years ago, after he had been acquitted by a judge when two juries failed to reach a verdict.