Howard calls for Blair to resign
Michael Howard has warned that Tony Blair must “consider his position” after the government’s anti-terrorism plans were defeated last night.
MPs voted 322 to 291 to reject plans to give police powers to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days, in the prime minister’s first Commons defeat since taking power in 1997.
The Conservatives and Lib Dems were expected to vote against the motion, but 49 Labour backbenchers also rebelled. MPs voted instead to pass an amendment extending the current detention limit of two weeks to 28 days.
Critics have rounded on the result as a sign that Mr Blair’s authority is weakening, calling for him to consider stepping down sooner rather than later. He has already announced the he will not lead Labour into another general election.
Tory leader Michael Howard last night said his party had taken a “principled stand” on the issue of 90-day detention – they had refused to go beyond 28 days – and were “fully vindicated” by the vote.
“Parliament did its job of testing arguments put forward by the prime minister and found them to be inadequate and poorly argued. This devastating defeat is a searing indictment on his judgment,” he said.
“Mr Blair’s authority has been diminished almost to vanishing point. This vote shows he is no longer able to carry his own party with him. He must now consider his position.”
Speaking after the vote, the prime minister said he “really can’t understand” the result of the vote, in which he had invested so much personal authority.
“It’s a question you need to put to the people who voted against what the police and security services – those people who are charged with fighting terrorism in the country – want,” he told the BBC Six O’Clock News.
“What I really can’t understand is how we can say, given the strength of the terrorist threat we face, that the civil liberties of a small number of terrorist suspects.come before the fundamental civil liberty of this country for protection from terrorism.”
But the Tories insist that Mr Blair had put himself in this position by overruling his home secretary, who last week appeared willing to compromise on the 90-day limit.
Charles Clarke on Monday said he would be tabling an amendment to the terrorism bill to this effect, but only hours later, announced the government would be sticking to the original plans. His only concession was a sunset clause that would make the law expire in a year.
“What the prime minister did was he in effect put his own authority on the line. He overruled his own home secretary and said we had to have 90 days. He put himself in this position,” shadow home secretary David Davis told Newsnight.
However, he insisted that the main issue under debate yesterday was one of national security, not Mr Blair’s authority, “and we should not lose sight of that”.
