Labour revolts against Brown

It all started so well for Gordon Brown and suddenly it all seems to be going south. Perception is all in a tabloid led environment like the UK and Brown does appear to have given the tabloids enough rope to hang him, if recent opinion polls are to be believed.

All is not lost, but it appears that his plans to allow police to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge is heading for defeat in parliament.

A survey of Labour MPs by The Independent has uncovered a growing insurrection. Only 34 votes are needed to defeat the detention plans and at least 38 MPs – enough to wipe out Mr Brown's Commons majority of 67 – are vowing to oppose controversial moves to extend the existing 28-day maximum detention period.

The scale of the rebellion will alarm Labour whips determined to hit the ground running next year after the Prime Minister's disastrous end to 2007.

The problem for Brown's attempt to have the time police can hold a suspect without charging them extended is that neither he nor his government have ever provided a cogent argument as to why the 28 day term should be extended. The only argument ever put forward is the rather Blairite one that the police have asked for this. As if, in a parliamentary democracy, the job of government is to give the police exactly what they want at all times.

Brown works best when he not pursuing Blairite policies and his attempt to extend detention times has been, and I'm being generous here, a half hearted one. Indeed, he appeared to undermine the urgency of this supposed need by implying that he was flying a kite and would accept any extension that parliament would allow.

Opposition has come from some unexpected places:

It emerged as Sir Ken Macdonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, delivered a damning verdict on Mr Brown's 42-day plans. He argued that the 28-day limit was working well, accusing ministers of wanting to pass laws based on a theoretical threat. "I think the basic point is whether you want to legislate on the basis of hypotheticals or whether you want to legislate on the basis of the evidence that we have acquired through practice," Sir Ken told BBC Radio 4's The World at One. "It seems to me that if you are legislating in an area which is going to curtail civil liberties to a significant extent, it is better to proceed by way of the evidence and the evidence of experience."

Nor are the rebels simply confined to the usual suspects:

The Liverpool MP Peter Kilfoyle, a former armed forces minister, said: "There's no evidence that more than 28 days is needed by police and the security services. All the key people are all quite satisfied with 28 days and that's where we should stick."

Chris Mullin, the MP for Sunderland South and a former foreign office minister, said: "In my time the number of days has gone from three to seven and 14 to 28 and I think that's quite enough."

Glenda Jackson, MP for Hampstead and Highgate and a former transport minister, said: "The Government's position seems to me absolutely illogical. It's not more time that is needed, it is more efficiency."

Fabian Hamilton, the Leeds North East MP, said he voted in 2005 for a 90-day maximum out of loyalty to the Government but would oppose 42 days. He warned: "We are eroding the liberties we hold so dear and that is what the terrorists want and we must resist that at all costs."

Alan Simpson, the Labour MP for Nottingham South, branded the proposal "crap". He said: "This could be part of a catalogue of self inflicted wounds by the Government."

Simpson sums it up best. A self inflicted wound. And it will be inflicted because Brown was trying to pass Blairite policies that he didn't believe in enough to make the case for them cogently and forcefully.

What's astonishing about this attempt by Brown is that it was only in November 2005 that Blair suffered his first parliamentary defeat when he attempted to increase the pre-charge detention period from 14 to 90 days. MP's agreed to a compromise of 28 days, but the battle left blood on the ground, and many of us thought it would be a long time before a Labour leader tried to increase it again.

I was surprised that Brown was so keen to reopen such a recent wound, but I am not remotely surprised by the reaction from Labour backbenchers. A self inflicted wound indeed.

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Tags: Gordon Brown, Labour Party, war on terror, 28 day detention limit, 42 day detention limit, civil liberties