Gordon Brown won a much-needed victory yesterday with Parliament approving his plan to permit the detention of terrorist suspects for up to 42-days without charges. An odd postscript to the story is the abrupt resignation of Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, who was outspoken in his opposition to the new law.
Mr. Davis is also to stand down as an MP in Hull and call a constituency by-election to highlight the issue of the erosion of civil liberties in Britain. He will then stand as a Conservative candidate again for the same seat, in the by-election set to be held on July 10, while campaigning on the issue of civil liberties in the Hull area and throughout Britain.
Conservative leader David Cameron did lose yesterday in failing to defeat the proposal, but it is curious that the story of Davis’s resignation is being spun as a second blow to Cameron’s leadership. Cameron opposed the popular legislation, allegedly on the advice of Davis. That Cameron can now select a new Shadow Home Secretary hardly seems like a defeat.
