David Davis 'vindicated' over 42 days

Conservative MP David Davis said today that he believed his decision to resign his Commons seat and fight a by-election over plans to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge helped to defeat the proposals.

Without the publicity his campaign sparked, the Government would almost certainly have forced the measure on to the statute book by sending it back to the Lords in a process known as "parliamentary ping-pong" and then invoked the Parliament Act to ensure it got its way, he said.

Mr Davis told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I feel vindicated because, before I resigned as an MP, it looked almost certain that this would go through after a ping-pong. We knew it would be defeated in Lords and it would only go through if the Parliament Act was used.

"The Government thought it had 70 per cent public support. We know today, when you address the question properly to the public, you only get 30 per cent support. So there is no political profit in it for the Government, so they wanted out of it."

Mr Davis added: "This has been all about politics, not about security. It has been about trying to give the Labour Party a 'tougher-than-Tory' model in the public mind.

"It has failed miserably and I don't think anybody sensible would revisit it."

Mr Davis accused Ms Smith of trying to "bury bad news" by announcing that she was dropping the measure last night, on a day when the following morning's headlines were certain to be dominated by the Government's bank rescue package.

Interesting? Click here to explore further