The former Shadow Home Secretary obviously didn’t get the memo. David Davis enjoyed a few glasses of champagne in a Commons bar last night with the Director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti and his successor Dominic Grieve. And who can blame him? Labour suffered a massive defeat in the Lords yesterday on the issue that he has made his own; ’42 days’. There were 309 votes against the Government. 118 in favour.
After the vote Shadow Security Minister, Pauline Neville-Jones, said:
"The vote was decisive. The proposal to extend pre-charge detention failed on three significant grounds: necessity, desirability and practicability. On all sides of the House of Lords the majority view – drawing on significant experience in policing, security and the law – was that these provisions should be completely removed. The Government produced no evidence to support an extension to 42 days. The extension would have been disproportionate and, in any event, so unworkable that the police and prosecutors would not have used it."
So heavy was the defeat that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has now decided to remove the 42 days proposal from the Counter Terrorism Bill.
WATCH: Lords defeat Government on ’42 days’
2pm: Parliament blog on Lord Tebbit’s support for 42 days