GRAND BOMBER TO STAY IN JAIL

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said Mr Straw would seek a judicial review of the decision to release Magee and three other inmates.

The Government obtained an emergency interim order stopping the releases. A full hearing is expected to take place today.

Magee, 47, was given eight life sentences in 1986 for planting the bomb that blew up the Grand Hotel during the 1984 Tory Party conference.

The bomb killed five people, injured a further 32 and nearly wiped out Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet.

He is being held at Belfast's Maze Prison, along with the three other men.

The other three, Paul Kavanagh, Thomas Quigley and Gerrard McDonnell, were due to be released today. Magee is scheduled for release in June.

The Home Secretary acted swiftly after the Northern Ireland Sentence Review Commissioners brought forward the four men's release dates.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said Jack Straw challenged the decision because of concern that their tariffs - the time they actually serve in jail - were not calculated correctly.

The Home Secretary is questioning whether the men, who were convicted in English courts, should be treated in the same way as they would if they had been convicted in Northern Ireland.

Downing Street insisted last night the decision was not related to the early release scheme drawn-up as part of the Good Friday peace accord.

There was controversy in 1994, when Magee was moved to Northern Ireland, eight years into his prison term.

Brighton Kemp Town MP Des Turner said last night that the Home Secretary was in a difficult position.

He said: "Because the then Prime Minister was nearly a victim he was given these eight life sentences.

"The acid test, and the one that I would be wanting to apply were I in Jack Straw's shoes, would be whether these people represent no further danger to society."

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