10.15am GMT
Latest detention plans fail to appease opponents
Louise Radnofsky and agencies
Thursday November 15, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Gordon Brown's hopes of building a cross-party consensus over new terror laws were dealt a fresh blow today as opponents rejected the government's latest proposals.
The BBC claims ministers are planning to extend the existing limit on detaining terror suspects without charge from 28 days to 58 days by handing new powers to the home secretary.
Under the proposals, the home secretary would be able to approve 30-day extensions of detention after 28 days, with oversight by a judge and parliament. The power would be time-limited but would not require a national state of emergency to be declared.
The shadow home secretary, David Davis, rejected the move, insisting the government has not "shown an ounce of evidence that we need to go beyond 28 days", while Labour backbencher David Winnick, who orchestrated the successful revolt against the government against similar proposals two years ago, said he was "not persuaded" by the plans.
Davis said he thought the government would only need to extend detention in the event of a completely unpredictable situation, such as a series of massive terror attacks.
He said the government already had the power to declare a temporary state of emergency then, but that he opposed "an undeclared state of permanent emergency".
He firmly dismissed suggestions that the declaration of a state of emergency would cause chaos and panic.
"Panic the nation? Are you joking? This is a nation that had 3,000 deaths under the IRA campaign; it had 3,000 deaths in one day at the height of the Blitz, I don't think that panicked it," he said.
"We've had a habeas corpus for centuries," said Davis. "It's been one of the fundamentals of British liberty. We now have the longest period in the free world in which a government can detain someone without charge."
Winnick said: "The government have put forward these proposals because they know it will be very difficult to get parliament to agree to an extension beyond 28 days."