Pre –charge detention period of 42 days gets the House of Commons nod
June 16, 2008
It was a narrow victory for British Prime Minister, when his proposal of increasing pre-charge detention for terror suspects was accepted and voted through the House of Commons by nine votes. Of the total 625 votes, 315 backed Mr. Brown’s proposal.
But the narrow victory had its share of sourness. Opposition parties alleged that the Labour Government had bartered support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party or perhaps even backbenchers promising of action on issues like extra cash for Northern Ireland in lieu of the support for the controversial legislation.
However, Mr Brown denied there was any such deal with Democratic Unionists. At a press conference, he said, “There was no deal. And I think for people to imply that, is to take away from the strength of the argument about the need to tackle terrorism.”
Tory shadow home secretary David Davis stated he was putting in his papers as an MP to “take a stand” against the terror bill. “I will be resigning my membership of this house and force a by-election. I will fight this by-election on the issue of relentless erosion of fundamental freedoms,” he said.
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