MPs and peers risk approving the handover of an "astonishing" amount of power to ministers to unilaterally create criminal offences punishable by 10-year prison sentences, a former lord chief justice has warned.

Lord Judge said a Government bill targeting people in breach of financial sanctions included a "very serious" attempt by ministers to acquire new powers through the use of so-called Henry VIII clauses.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph the peer also said that a Government-backed amendment to address similar concerns about the separate EU Withdrawal Bill "does not go far enough".

The intervention by Lord Judge, who is one of Britain's most respected legal figures, suggests that ministers will face major battles over both bills in the House of Lords next month.

Lord Judge, who was head of the judiciary until 2013, warned that Henry VIII powers "outlast" any government and would be available "to anybody who may come to power", including a future authoritarian regime. In theory, ministerial regulations, or statutory instruments, resulting from the clauses pass through Parliament, but in practice the vast majority are automatically implemented.

He separately raised concerns about an attempt by peers to narrow the journalistic exemptions to new data protection laws, describing the independence of the press as a "constitutional necessity". And he warned that the judiciary was not adequately represented in Cabinet because the office of Lord Chancellor is no longer held by "a heavy hitter".