Prime Minister Tony Blair has spoken of his disappointment in losing the House of Commons vote on whether to allow authorities to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days.
The government wants the period extended from 14 days in line with requests from police and the security services.
What PM says
Mr Blair said: "I think this is the right thing to do to put this before Parliament. It is better sometimes to lose doing the right thing than be doing the wrong thing. What I cannot understand is how we can say, given the strength of the terrorist threat that we face, that the civil liberties of a small number of terrorist suspects – who we are saying in any event have to come back before a court every seven days – come before the fundamental civil liberty in this country of protection from terrorism. I think it was the wrong decision and I just hope in a later time we don’t rue it."
The PM told journalists at his monthly press conference earlier this week that a ‘compelling case’ remained for the 90-day proposal.
Meanwhile Conservative Leader Michael Howard told Tony Blair to consider resignation after his authority was reduced to what Mr Howard called "near vanishing point". It was the Prime Minister’s first voting defeat in the Commons since Labour came to power in 1997.
MPs voted 322 to 291 against the Government’s three month detention without trial. In a second vote, the Commons backed an alternative proposal – supported by the Tories – to double the current 14 day detention period to 28 days before a suspect has to be charged or released from custody.
Mr Howard said: "The Conservative Party has taken a principled stand on this issue and we have been fully vindicated. 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 judgement. 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."
