David Blunkett has delivered his first keynote speech on Labour's plans to toughen the criminal justice system.

In a debate on the Home Office measures in the Queen's Speech, Blunkett was also given the first indication of the scale of Commons opposition to the governments crime measures - dubbed "authoritarian" by critics.

Blunkett's decisive role in the resignation of Sussex's chief constable and his personal intervention in the Bulger furore have already been read as an early indication that he will bring his own indomitable and "battling" style to the job.

Insiders say that he has boasted that he would be "even tougher" than his predecessor, Jack Straw, who was viewed as no pushover. Critics of Straw's plans to cut rights to jury trial were dismissed as "BMW driving lawyers" and "Hampstead liberals" and defence lawyers were branded as "anti-social".

Early indications suggest that opponents to Blunkett's plans may find themselves sidelined and "slapped down" as never before, although opposition could still be stiff.

Plans to end the historic protection of "double jeopardy" and to change rules of evidence will trigger criticism across the political spectrum.

Labour claims that a second term mandate on health and education gives the government the "right to demand responsibilities in return".

Shadow attorney general, Edward Garnier QC, believes that Labour is drunk on power and "wholly mindless" of people's rights.

"It seems to me that the government has drunk heavily at the saloon bar of politics and has become intoxicated by power. They are wholly mindless of the very rights that they introduced into this country through the Human Rights Act," he told ePolitix.

Liberty director, John Wadham, has also sounded the alarm over the parlous state of civil liberties under Labour.

"The government wants to give the police more powers and erode the rights of innocent people and those caught up in the criminal justice system still further.

"This is despite the fact that those rights have been steadily eroded over the last twenty years and there have been over 85 acts of parliament dealing with crime and criminal justice since 1981. Unfortunately, all too often the extra powers tilt the balance against suspects and defendants just a little bit more," he told ePolitix.

Labour backbencher, Alan Simpson, believes "social authoritarianism" is a product of Tony Blair's much-vaunted third way.

"One of the features of the third way is the giving up on managing economy and deciding to manage people instead.

"So there is a drift to social authoritarianism alongside the drift to economic liberalisation," he told ePolitix.

Simpson worries that people "stripped of rights" and the prospect of structural social reform may take action in to their own hands.

A problem, which he believes has contributed to disturbances in Burnley.

"When the government retreats from structural change, it can end up criminalising those who take action into their own hands," he said.

Garnier argues that in the face of Labour's huge majority the job of opponents to the proposed criminal justice reforms is clear.

"It is to warn. It is to point out the danger of the government's plans. And it is to be steadfast in the face of mockery from an arrogant government," he said.

He is angry at Labour attacks on the integrity of lawyers and the legal profession which, he believes, bodes ill for democracy.

"When the government says people like me are 'BMW driving Hampstead liberals' what is forgotten is that if we don't have an independent legal profession, which it is prepared to carry out its job without fear or favour and which is prepared to stand up against the government, if we don't have an independent judiciary which is not suborned to the executive, democracy will collapse," he said.

Hostility to lawyers over the civil liberties issue misses the point and is an indication of the government's "uncivilised" stance on human rights, argues Garnier.

"When I complain about the government's authoritarianism, when I complain about the government's policies which will endanger human rights. I don't do this because I am a lawyer. I do it because I think this government is uncivilised and it doesn't do the level of argument any good for the government to hurl abuse at those who disagree," he said.

Labour's Alan Simpson was involved in pioneering work to rehabilitate offenders in the seventies and he believes the Home Office have got it all wrong.

"I think we need a root and branch rethink of the home affairs agenda. There should be a much greater emphasis on putting fewer people in prison and expanding interventions to deflect patterns of crime," he said.