[Bluestar]

Davis resigns in civil liberties protest

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has quit as an MP in protest at the "erosion of civil liberties in Britain".

He led the Conservatives' failed bid to defeat the Government's plans to introduce 42-day detention without charge for terror suspects.

Mr Davis said he was now taking a stand against the Government's position and will fight a by-election in his Howden and Haltemprice constituency.

Conservative leader David Cameron described Mr Davis's action as a "courageous" personal decision and announced that Dominic Grieve would be replacing him as shadow home secretary.

It has also emerged that the Liberal Democrats will not be fielding a candidate in the by-election - giving Mr Davis a clear run against a Labour candidate.

Mr Davis said: "I will argue in this by-election against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this Government."

He said the undermining of civil liberties through moves such as 42 days and the introduction of ID cards "cannot go on".

"It must be stopped and for that reason today I feel it is incumbent on me to take a stand," he told reporters outside the Commons.

Privately Mr Davis has accepted that many on the Tory benches were uncomfortable about opposing tough law and order measures.

Aides had indicated that last night's vote was "do or die" and Mr Davis had staked a great deal of his credibility on the outcome.

Labour former home secretary David Blunkett dismissed the resignation as a "childish and immature" publicity stunt and urged his party not to use public money to field a candidate in the by-election.

"David Davis's behaviour is a pure piece of political theatre, even more bizarre than John Major resigning as leader of the Tory Party in order to stand again against his own colleagues," he said.

"This is childish and immature and it is not worthy of a major political party to engage in such theatre.

"It is my view that neither the Labour Party nor the Liberal Democrats should give him the egotistical satisfaction of a contest in which he costs the public purse, as well as political parties, substantial sums of money to make exactly the same point that he's already been putting very strongly as shadow home secretary."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown won a vote on his controversial plans to hold terror suspects without charge for 42 days by just nine as 36 Labour MPs rebelled.

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