Rebel Labour MPs join David Davis campaign

Tory maverick David Davis yesterday received an unexpected boost in his one-man campaign to preserve civil liberties as rebel Labour MPs announced that they were ready to support him.

The MPs, who are risking expulsion from Labour, may yet turn Davis’s campaign into a problem for Gordon Brown, the prime minister.

Davis unexpectedly resigned last week as shadow home secretary to force a by-election and campaign against the “slow strangulation” of civil liberties. He was spurred to do so after the House of Commons voted to allow police to detain suspects for up to 42 days without charge.

Davis faces continued criticism from fellow Conservatives for his action, with one MP publicly accusing him of “folly and vanity”. However, Bob Marshall-Andrews, Labour MP for Medway and a leading critic of Brown’s terrorism legislation, said yesterday that he would travel to Davis’s Yorkshire constituency to lend his support.
SEE THE FULL REPORT AT: The Sunday Times